A Sister's Plight
by TyrothDarkstorm
Summary: Sequel to Bloodrayne666's story A Dangerous Captive. After the losing the dragon, and the powers they could harness from him, Arashi and Arden once again seeks to capture the mutants they seek. With a new approach, they will gain an advantage that will leave even Tyroth at their mercy. Rated M for swearing, violence, blood, torture and death. Complete!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone, and welcome to my latest fic, 'A Sister's Plight', following 'Mutants Misplaced'. This is a special story, as it is a direct sequel to the fic 'A Dangerous Capitive' by Bloodrayne666. She wrote that as a gift to me, and now I want to return the favour. As you might expect, there will be references to her story in this, and I do urge you all to read it, not to mention her other stories.**

 **A Sister's Plight**

 **Chapter 1**

 **Back For More**

"And finish!" Splinter barked, letting his students rest after preforming the moves he had called out for the last hour and a half. "That is enough for today, my children. You have done well." the old rat praised them.

"Thank you, sensei." the five reptiles said in unison, bowing to their master. Leonardo then turned to his brothers and adoptive sister.

"Alright guys. We'll rest for, say, ten minutes, then we hit the surface for tonight's patrol." he said.

"That's more than enough time to get a snack!" said the always happy Michelangelo.

"You're hopeless, Mikey." Monalisa said teasingly.

"But you guys love me anyway, right?"

"No. We're just used to you." said Raphael.

"Hey!"

"Don't try to deny it, love. We all know that you care about your baby brother." said Mona.

Raphael scoffed and the others laughed as the hotheaded turtle blushed slightly from embarrassment. He couldn't deny it, but he didn't want to admit it in front of his brothers, he had an image to think about.

* * *

An hour later, the gang jumped across the rooftops as they passed into the Purple Dragon's territory. Just some fifteen minutes earlier, they had heard an explosion. When they arrived at the scene, they found that someone broken into a bankvault, but had already escaped. The only ones that would pull such a stunt was the infamous gang, so the mutants knew roughly where to look.

Arriving at an abandoned warehouse that the gang had used as a hideout once before, the team saw signs of recent activity, fresh tracks in the dirt in the courtyard and light inside the dirty windows. Seeing no guards outside, the team snuck to an open window and peered inside.

"Check this out." said Raphael.

On the floor lay twenty or so members of the gang, all unconscious. Entering the building, they examined the thugs and found that they had bruises, black eyes, busted lips and missing teeth.

"Whoa, someone really did a number on these guys." said Michelangelo.

"Yeah, but who?" said Monalisa. "You don't think it was Casey, do you?"

"No way. Casey's good, but not this good." said Raphael. "Even if he'd been here when the thugs arrived, I doubt that the fight would have ended by now, at least not this way."

"I don't like this, something's not right." said Donatello.

Without warning, the lights were turned off. Instinctively, the ninja readied themselves for combat, searching the area with their eyes for any signs of attackers, but all they saw was darkness.

The moon shone through the skylights, illuminating patches of the hall. In the square of light in front of the five ninja, there was a shadow. Looking up towards the skylight, the mutants saw a silhouette of someone standing on the support beams. Standing tall, the figure seemed to have a cape of some sort and something resembling pointed ears or horn on top of the head.

"Batman?" Michelangelo asked nervously.

"That's what the other blokes guessed as well, and like them, you're wrong." said the figure with a familiar voice.

The lights flickered to life, revealing the figure's identity.

"How are you doing?" the red dragon mutant said with a smirk.

"Tyroth?"

"Hi guys!" said another familiar voice from behind the ninja. Sitting on another support beam, next to the main power cord to the lights, was a female lizard mutant.

"Sephie!" Monalisa said, happy to see her close friend.

"You guys sure surprised us there." said Leonardo. "What are you doing here of all places?"

"We were on our way to visit you, and decided to take a rest here after the trip." Tyroth started. Jumping down to the floor, he walked over to his friends and continued talking. "Then these fools show up. As they didn't know that we were here, they never stood a chance when we attacked. Sephie also got the idea of scaring them first, just like we did with you just now."

"We just couldn't pass up such an opportunity, but I didn't expect that we would be able to do it twice in a row." said Sephie as she joined the rest.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you in New York?" said Donatello.

"Do we really need a reason to visit our close and dear friends and have some fun?" said Sephie.

"Well, it sure ain't boring with you two around." said Raphael.

"Likewise." Tyroth replied. "Now help us tie up these losers and we'll be off before the cops show up."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the headquarters of the Foot, Arashi, a tall man of Japanese origin with black hair in ponytail and dressed in black and red robes, walked into the lab belonging to his head scientist, doctor William Arden.

Arden was currently overseeing a new project that he was working on, aided by a few medical ninja and nurses.

"Doctor." Arashi said, getting Arden's attention.

"Ah, master. How good of you to come." the scientist said, turning away from one of the many computer screens in the room, showing the burnt left side of his face.

"You said that you had something important to show me."

"Indeed I have." said Arden with a smirk. He then pressed a few buttons on the keyboard. "I am sure that you remember him."

Arashi looked at the image on the screen, and image of a red humanoid dragon.

"How could I ever forget. He devastated several stories of our HQ, nearly killed the both of us and tore through my ninja like they were made of paper, despite him being weakened by the sedatives. Not even your clones or cross-breeds stood a chance against him."

"True, his sudden increase in strength and power was completely unforeseen."

"Is there a reason for bringing this up again, doctor?" Arashi asked, slightly annoyed.

"As you remember, my old lab was one of the areas he destroyed, including my research, such as his DNA-samples. But, like the samples from that lizard whore, Monalisa," Arden ran his fingers over his scarred face when he mentioned Monalisa's name. "I kept backups. And it is in these samples that I have found something interesting."

Pressing a few more buttons, the image shifted to two double helices, DNA, with small portraits of Monalisa and Tyroth respectively. A few areas, scattered across the two helices, were highlighted.

"While analysing the samples, I found traces of unmutated human DNA. They are not complete, but there is enough to potentially identify their old selves. And from there, it should be a breeze to locate their relatives and..."

"And take them hostage." Arashi filled in with an evil smile. "Excellent work, William. Not even the dragon will be able to do anything if his family is in our custody."

"I thought that you would like that, master."

Arashi was just about to say something, when his cellphone rang.

"Yes?" Arashi answered.

"Really? Are you sure?" he asked the person on the phone. He listened for a while before hanging up.

"It would seem that the dragon has returned, my good doctor. If this plan will bare fruition, now would be a good time to start. Find their identities." Arashi commanded.

"I will not fail you, master. Unlike that fool Overlord that you had to ally yourself with in my absence."

"A fool he may have been, but after witnessing the dragon's destructive capabilities first-hand, we will do wise not to underestimate our enemy, or we may share Overlord's fate."

"Before you leave, master, there is one more thing that I want to show you."

Arden handed Arashi a small data pad.

"Read it at you leisure, master."

Arashi didn't waste any time and started reading the document on the pad. Once again, he smile maliciously.

"How very creative."

 **Only the first chapter, and the Foot is already up to no good squared. Trying to find Tyroth and Mona's families and use them as hostages, that's low. But the crazed doctor has more in store. What could it be?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **The Search**

Splinter had been happily surprised when his students had returned with Tyroth and Sephie in tow. They were always a welcomed sight for the old rat, and it warmed his heart that his children had gained such good friends, especially Monalisa, who seemed to be very happy when she was with Sephie.

Of course, being a lone girl in a home with four boys wasn't the easiest thing in the world, so whenever Sephie and Tyroth visited, Monalisa and Sephie would get together for girl stuff.

After sharing some stories over dinner, the young mutants spent the remainder of the day playing video-games, before going to bed.

The next day, instead of sparring or practising their moves, Splinter had them arrange an obstacle course, with the purpose of training their speed and agility.

Running the course, dodging swinging tires and boards while jumping over planks, Sephie was determined to beat Monalisa's record. Reaching the end, she rang the bell and panted.

"So… how did I do?" she asked.

"Not bad, love." Tyroth said, checking the stopwatch. "Thirty eight point three, less than two seconds slower than Mona."

"Aw, I was sure that I at least would match it."

"It's still a good time, and faster than the boys." said Monalisa. "I've been doing these kind of things since I was adopted by the turtles, it's only natural that I'm a bit better."

"Keep practising and you might claim the title of fastest lizard, love." Tyroth encouraged.

"Alright, big guy, now it's your turn." said Raphael.

Tyroth took one look at the various obstacles and shook his head.

"I'll pass."

"What, you're scared?" Michelangelo teased.

"No."

"Oh yeah? Then show us what you're made of." said Raph with a cocky smile, crossing his arms.

Tyroth looked at the course again and thought about it for a moment.

"Alright then, how about a little bet, loudmouths. If I can't make it to the bell and ring it in thirty seconds or less, I'll do all the chores here for the rest of our stay. But if I win, you two will do all the chores. Deal?" the dragon said, extending his hand.

"Deal!" Raphael said without a doubt, taking Tyroth's hand and shaking it.

"Oh boy! No chores for us!" Michelangelo chimed.

As Tyroth got into position, the others were a bit confused by his actions.

"What is he thinking?" Monalisa said. "Not even I have cleared the course that fast."

"He may be fast for someone his size, but this doesn't seem possible." said Donatello.

"And… Go!" Raphael shouted.

Tyroth started running, but to everyone's surprise, he didn't enter the course, instead, he dashed alongside it all the way to the bell at the end.

"I counted twenty five seconds. How much was it?" he asked as he rang the bell.

"Uhm… twenty two point four." said Leonardo.

"You cheated!" Raphael yelled.

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did! You were supposed to run the obstacle course, not run past it!"

"I never said that. I said that I could reach the bell in less than thirty seconds, not once did I claim that I would take the course."

"He's right, you know. This would hold in court." said Donatello.

Raphael groaned in annoyance that they were right, and Michelangelo paled when he thought about how much chores they would have to do.

"Ah shell! This stinks!"

"That's what you get. But you can relax, I won't hold you to it." said Tyroth. Michelangelo sighed in relief. "I knew that the only way to get through the course, would be to break anything in my path, so I chose another way. Sometimes you have to think outside the box."

"Well put, Tyroth." said Splinter. "Even though that is not what this exercise is about, it is still something we should all take to heart. So now that we are finished for today, please clean up here."

* * *

"I can't believe that you tricked us." Raphael complained as they disassembled the obstacle course.

"As I said, that's what you get. If you still think that it was unfair, we could always settle it with a sparring match. That is, if you think that you can beat me."

"Oh, I'll beat you one of these days!"

"Should we separate them?" asked Donatello.

"I don't see why. Tyroth won't hurt Raph, and Raph can't hurt Tyroth seriously unless he really tries." said Sephie.

"And if things start to get out of hand, I'm sure that we girls can keep the boys calm." said Monalisa. "And you know how Raph can be."

"All too well, Mona. All too well." said Leonardo.

* * *

Arashi walked into Arden's lab, eager, almost impatient, to see if the doctor had produced any results yet.

"How goes the search, doctor?" the leader of the Foot asked.

"Slowly I'm afraid, my lord. The sequences I extracted from Monalisa's DNA were very… generic for a lack of better words. Since we started searching various databases, we've gotten several hundred thousands of potential matches. It will take time to filter through them all."

"We got time to wait, William. She'll be at your mercy soon enough. But what of the dragon's DNA? Any luck?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. I thought that he would have been a more difficult task, but as luck would have it, it might even be less difficult than hacking the databases. You see, he has a very special genetic marker that is unique to humans from the northern parts of Scandinavia and the north-east most parts of Russia. That alone limited the number to only a few hundred. My assistant's are currently-"

"Master! I think we have a match." said a nurse with blonde hair in a loose ponytail.

"How convenient." Arden said with a smirk. "Report."

"His name is Raymond Ottosen," the nurse explained. "he moved from north Sweden with his family to Charleston, Illinois, at the age of ten. Has records with the police for getting into fights to defend someone else. Moved to Chicago a few years ago and was murdered by a man that has been confirmed to have been one of Overlord's minions.

Roughly one year later, Overlord is supposedly killed in a factory explosion, and only a month later, the dragon is encountered here in New York. There have been several cases of criminals, including people working for Overlord, that have been taken down by mysterious vigilantes."

"Just like the turtles do here." Arashi mused. "And the dragon helps them."

"Yes, and since they never found the body, he could very well have mutated instead." said the blonde nurse.

"The ninja have reported that the dragon arrives from roughly the same direction as Chicago. We may very well have found what we're looking for. Do you have any other connections?" Arashi asked.

"Yes, master. Raymond has a younger sister, Jennifer Ottosen. Two months before the dragon was encountered, she moved here to New York, only to move again a few months later, this time to Chicago."

"Moving to Chicago after we've met the dragon. That doesn't seem like a coincident to me." said Arden.

"I agree. If nothing else, it would seem like she might even know of her brother's fate." said Arashi.

"But, master… We're not certain that this is the correct person. We still need to examine the rest." said a nurse with messy black hair, hanging like rat tails.

"He is, however, the best match so far. Everything adds up. The time, his dislike for criminals, the location." the blond nurse interjected, shooting a quick glare at the other nurse.

Arashi thought for a while, both nurses had valid points.

"Continue working with the remaining files." he said. "If this is not the correct one, we need to find the one that is. But in the meantime..." Arashi turned to Arden. "Prepare to make a house call."

"As you wish, my lord."

 **It seems like the Foot are unusually effective this time around. With them having discovered Jennifer, things are not looking good.**

 **What will happen? Find out in the next chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **Darkness Begins**

"And that's enough from you." said Tyroth as he tossed a Purple Dragon member into an open dumpster. "That was all of them."

"They hardly stood a chance." said Leonardo, placing his swords back in the scabbards. "As soon as they saw you, they were practically running in fear."

"That makes, what, three bunches tonight."

"It does. I wonder how the others are doing."

Leonardo took his shell-cell and called Raphael and Donatello.

"Yes?" Donatello answered.

"What's up, fearless?" said Raphael.

"Just checking how you're doing. We just took down our third group of Purple Dragons."

"Me and Mikey have only taken down one group. We must have gotten the calmer area tonight." said Donatello.

"We're up to two so far. The girls really made short work of these bozos."

"And no one's injured?" Leonardo asked.

"No."

"Not a scratch."

"Good. Finish up your areas and we'll meet up back where came up."

Returning to the rooftops, Leonardo and Tyroth were about to take off when Tyroth stopped and looked at something in the distance. Curious, Leonardo walked over to his friend and saw what Tyroth was looking at.

The Foot Headquarters.

Tyroth glared at the building with anger in his eyes, he clearly remembered how he was tortured by Arden, how he and Arashi taunted him, and how his rage took over when he heard that they would torture Sephie in front of his eyes and when they nearly lost Monalisa.

"Are you okay?" Leonardo asked, placing a hand on Tyroth's shoulder.

"The bastards are still alive, aren't they?"

"Arashi and Arden? Yes, I'm afraid so."

"Will we ever b rid of such monsters?"

"Honestly? I don't know. We thought that we were rid of the Shredder, but he survived and returned, more than once. Now that he's been banished to a frozen asteroid, Arashi takes over. It seems like there's always someone to take the place."

"Figures. I'm very tempted to tear that place apart, burn it to the ground and rip those bastards to pieces! But I'm no fool, an attack like that would be suicide, even for me."

"I can't even imagine what you went through, the kind of horrors you had to endure."

"I still have nightmares from time to time, but they're not so bad as they were, thanks to Splinter."

"Still, no one should have to experience something like that. The fact that you didn't break shows just how strong you are."

"They came closer than I'd like to admit, to tell you the truth. The only reason that I managed to hang on, was what could happen to you guys, to those in Mutopia, and because I knew that you would rescue me."

"We owe you that for all the times you've put yourself in harms way to protect us. And we'd never leave a friend behind. Now, let's get moving. We still have some ground to cover."

"One thing, Leonardo. If and when you guys decide to take out the Foot, let me know, 'cause I want to help you."

"Are you sure about that? It wouldn't be a small thing, attacking their headquarters."

"They are a threat that needs to be dealt with, and you'll need all the help you can get. So if you promise that you'll tell me, I promise that I'll help you."

"Then you have my word, Tyroth. It would be an honour to have you at our side. Together, we can take on anything the Foot throws at us."

But, unknown to the mutants, the Foot already had a plan in action.

* * *

Earlier that evening, in Chicago.

"You'll have to excuse the mess, I wasn't prepared for visitors." said a woman in her early twenties. She had dark-brown eyes and shoulder-long blonde hair and wore a blue T-shirt and black sweatpants. She tried to clean up a bit in the living-room, clearing the table by the couch from magazines and DVDs.

"Jennifer, dear, there's no need to apologize. If anything, your father and I should be apologizing for dropping by unannounced." said a woman in her late thirties with hazelnut eyes and long wavy blonde hair, wearing jeans and a light-blue blouse with a dark-blue vest.

"It's no problem, Mom, I promise." said Jennifer.

"I told you she wouldn't mind, Erica." said a man in his early forties. He had short dark-brown hair with a few stains of grey in it, stubble and dark-brown eyes. He was dressed in a dark-green shirt and a pair of jeans.

"True, but it would still have been better if we could have given her some warning. You ain't very fond of uninvited guests yourself, Richard."

"So, what brings you here?" asked Jennifer.

"We've been on a roadtrip for a few days now, and since we were passing by, we thought that we should stop by for a visit." said Richard.

"And we worry about you. I can't say that I feel comfortable with you moving here, not after what happened to your brother."

"I understand, Mom. But living in fear isn't an option for me, and the crime-rate has dropped quite a lot. Plus, I'm sure that Raymond is watching over me, and you too, as often as he can."

"He would have been so proud of you, becoming so strong and independent." said Erica.

Jennifer felt a knot of discomfort form in her stomach, she could easily tell that her parents still missed Raymond greatly and hadn't fully recovered yet. But what was really bothering her, was that she knew that her brother was alive and well, but can't tell anyone.

She really wanted to tell them, but after hearing about the kind of enemies her brother had made, it was best that they didn't know. For everyone's sake.

"Do you want some coffee?" she asked in an attempt to switch the subject.

"Yes please, thank you."

A few minutes later, Jennifer returned from the kitchen with three cups of coffee, a small jug of milk and some sugar on a tray.

"So, how are you doing? Everything's alright I hope." said Richard.

"No complaints from me. My job at the grocery store pays well enough and this apartment ain't that expensive. I've even made several friends over the year, though to be honest, I wouldn't invite them home, at least not all of them."

"They aren't some kind of ruffians, are they?" Erica asked her daughter concerned.

"No, they're not. They can be trusted, Mom, they're just… special."

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

"Didn't you say that you weren't expecting guests?" asked Richard.

"It must be old miss Carter, she lives in the next flat over and often asks if she can borrow something, like sugar, cream or even a pair of scissors. She's such a sweet old lady, she helped me quite a lot when I first moved here. Just give me a moment."

Walking over to the door, Jennifer wished that she had one of those more secure doors that they were scheduled to get later that month. They at least had those peepholes and the security chains were a lot better, the ones on these old doors could practically be unlocked from the outside. That was also one of the reasons that the rent was as low as it was. It was also well known that people living in this neighbourhood were of the poorer sort, so security against burglars wasn't that high, but it was improving.

Opening the door slightly, Jennifer saw a tall man with short brown hair in a coat with a logo of some sort on the left side. He was holding a clipboard and pen in one hand and a package large enough to contain a football in the other.

"Yes?"

"Excuse me for bothering you this late in the evening, miss." said the man. "But are you..." he looked at the paper on the clipboard, searching for something.

"Are you Jennifer Ottosen?" he asked after a short while. "I have an express package addressed for you. If you would just sign at the dotted line at the bottom, please."

Jennifer wasn't sure why she would get a package, nor from whom, but she couldn't well refuse. Scanning the surroundings, she found no one else outside. Still cautious, she unlocked the chain and opened the door. Having taken courses in self-defence since she moved to Chicago, she was fairly confident that she could deal with the man in case he tried to pull anything.

Taking the clipboard, she had just finished writing her name, when she felt a sting in her stomach. Immediately, she felt very sleepy, and looking down to see what had stung her, she saw a dart of some kind.

As the tiredness took over, Jennifer couldn't stand up as she wobbled and collapsed. Before loosing consciousness, she managed to see some form of contraption on the man's left hand, previously obscured by the package. Another thing that she saw, was an evil smirk.

"Nighty-night." the man said, walking into the apartment and locking the door behind him.

"Jennifer? What was that sound?" her mother asked as she rounded the corner. She was terrified when she saw her daughter laying on the floor with a stranger standing over her.

"Jennifer!"

Erica's scream caused her husband to rush to her aid, and like her, he too was terrified by the sight he saw.

"What happened?! What have you done to our daughter?!" Richard demanded.

The man didn't say anything, instead he pointed his left hand at the couple and shot them with a pair of darts from his contraption. It didn't take long before Richard and Erica had passed out and lay on the floor by their daughter's side.

'I didn't expect the parents to be here as well, that caught me off guard. But I believe this will work in our favour.' he thought. 'Either way, we have to hurry, the noise might have alerted the neighbours.'

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a cellphone and pressed a speed-dial number.

"It's Arden." he said once they answered on the other end. "The package is ready to be secured, but we may be short on time. Also, there are two additional packages that require the same attention."

"Hai, sir. We will be there soon."

After hanging up, Arden walked into the bedroom and opened the window, it faced an alley, so they would be concealed when they left. He then spent a few minutes collecting the family's phones. Once he was done, he walked back to his victims. Kneeling by Jennifer, he stroked her cheek with his right hand.

"Such a pretty face, it would be a shame if something were to happen to it." he said with an evil grin that caused his prosthetic to wrinkle in a grotesque way.

 **Tyroth still haven't forgotten what the Foot did to him, and who would have? They were very cruel to him from the start, and it only got worse.**

 **But Jennifer and her parents have been captured by Arden! That's is a clear example of not good! What will the scarred doctor do to them? Read on to find out.**

 **Also, before I go, to all of you that read my stories. Thank you for your support, it means a lot to me. :) May I also suggest that those of you that don't have accounts here on Fanfiction, take the time to get one. It doesn't take very long at all, just a few minutes, and it gives so much without demanding anything. You would be able to get alerts to your mail when an author or story you follow updates, and if you have ideas that you leave in the reviews, having an account allow us writers to get in touch with you to discuss such things.**

 **I won't rant on about this any more, it was just something I wanted to put out there. See you next time. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **The Foot's Agenda**

Jennifer awoke on the cold, hard concrete floor, feeling stiff and sore. Her head felt heavy and her eyes complained on the light when she opened them. Sitting up, she waited for her eyes to adjust, but when they did, she wished that she hadn't opened them in the first place.

She was in a rather small room with an iron-bar door. Panic started to build up as she realized that she was being held as a prisoner, but what really scared her, was what she saw on the other side of the bars. A large room with many large torture machines, both of medieval and more modern form, dozens of blades, whips, tongs, batons, tasers and more hung on the walls. The worst part was that it looked like the equipment had seen use, and not too long ago.

Trying to find a way to escape, Jennifer found two other prisoners in the cell, laying unconscious further in, and these two, she recognized.

"Mom! Dad!"

Falling to her knees by her parents, she wasted no time checking for a pulse and if they still drew breath. Relieved that they were alive and seemingly unharmed, Jennifer was able to calm down a bit. She gently shook her parents, trying to wake them.

"Mom, Dad, please, wake up."

"Uh… Jennifer? What's happening?" Richard asked as he woke up. Erica wasn't far behind.

"W-where are we?" she asked.

"I-I don't know. But we need to find a way out of here." said Jennifer.

"I wouldn't even bother with that, if I were you." said a man's voice from somewhere outside the cell. Shortly after, a tall Japanese man in red and black robes walked into view. He was accompanied by two men in black and grey ninja uniforms.

"That cell was originally built to house captives more powerful than any of you." the man continued.

"Who are you?! And why are we imprisoned?!" Richard demanded.

"I am Izo Arashi, leader of the Foot in our master's absence."

Jennifer paled when she heard the name, she had been told of this man before, and of all the horrible things he and his ilk had done. Her brother had been on the receiving end of Arashi's malice more than once.

"As to why you are here, our organisation has certain enemies that have been a thorn in our side for many years. Not long ago, they acquired allies, one of which has certain qualities that we desire for our own men. This individual is Raymond Ottosen, your son."

Richard and Erica weren't sure if they had misheard what Arashi said, but there was no mistaking it, he had said his name.

"What are you talking about?! Raymond died two years ago! He was murdered!" Erica almost screamed.

"On the contrary, my dear, your son is very much alive, despite our best efforts to change that." said Arashi, mumbling the last part.

"How is that possible?" said Richard.

"I do not know, but I believe that your daughter might."

Erica and Richard looked at Jennifer, who turned away as she couldn't face them, the discomfort in her stomach made her sick as it grew.

"It's not true, is it? Jennifer?" her mother asked.

Jennifer bit her lip and a few tears formed in her eyes.

"It's true..." she said weakly. "Raymond is alive..."

"W-what? He lives? And you knew? Why didn't you tell us?!" said Erica, tears forming in her eyes as well.

"He asked me not to. He has changed, Mom."

"Yes, changed into a monster." Arashi interjected.

"No, he's no monster! The only monster is you!" Jennifer yelled. "He told me of what you've done, to him and his friends!"

"Hmph. As much as I would like to see where this conversation leads, I have other plans." said Arashi. He then motioned to his two ninja. "Bring the girl."

"What?! No!" Richard exclaimed.

The two ninja unlocked the door and entered the cell, one staying in the opening, while the other walked towards the family, while they tried to back away to no avail.

"Get away! Don't you dare lay a finger on her!" Richard tried to block the ninja's way, but he was simply shoved aside, hitting the wall hard. Erica got the same treatment, and the ninja took a strong grip around Jennifer's wrists and dragged her out of the cell, despite her struggling and trying to fight back.

"No! Please stop! Mom! Dad!" she screamed.

"Let go of our daughter!" Erica yelled.

Richard got back on his feet and lunged at the ninja, only to have the one in the doorway step between and jab a taser in Richard's chest. He cried out in shock and pain before collapsing on the floor.

"Richard!"

"Dad, no!"

Erica stumbled to her feet and hurried to her husband's side. When she got to him, the ninja had exited the cell and locked it. Erica could do nothing but sit her injured husband as Arashi and the ninja left with Jennifer, still screaming and trying to free herself.

"Why?" Erica sobbed as tears fell. "Why is this happening?"

* * *

Jennifer was dragged a long way through hallways and an elevator by the two ninja as they followed their master. She tried and tried to break their grip, but every time she did, they punched her. Her entire upper body was almost covered in bruises, but she didn't give up, she continued to try with every ounce of strength she had.

Finally, they came to a stop as they entered a room that looked like something from a sci-fi horror novel. Lots of computers and other lab equipment were spread out across the room. Despite that it seemed like they had arrived at their destination, the two ninja didn't even loosen their grip on Jennifer's arms, and she didn't stop trying to break free.

"Are you ready, doctor?" Arashi called out among the half-dozen or so people that were working in the lab. One man looked up from his work-desk and walked over to Arashi.

"Indeed I am, master." the man said. Now within view, Jennifer recognized him, it was the delivery man that showed up at her apartment the other day. As he turned towards Jennifer, she cringed of fear and disgust at the sight of the hideous scared left side of his face. His evil smirk only made him look even more monstrous. Even though Jennifer was terrified of the man alone, she didn't even need to guess who he was.

"Arden!" she exclaimed in horror. Arden chuckled in response.

"I am pleased that you know of me, girl, though it is a shame for you that you didn't realize it when we first met."

"Tyroth told me about you, all of you!"

"We figured as much." said Arashi. "Then I suppose there is no need to dally. Doctor, if you would be so kind."

"It would be my pleasure, master." Arden said with a grin. With syringes attached to his right hand?, he approached Jennifer, who desperately tried to get away, but the ninja held her firmly in place. She clenched her teeth as the evil doctor inserted one of the syringes into her arm and injected her with some of the content. Once done, Arden pulled out the needle and took a few steps back.

Jennifer never had time to wonder why, as merely seconds after, intense pain shot through her arm and out into the rest of her body. She screamed so tears fell from her eyes, she had never felt such pain before, it was as if she was being electrocuted while someone poured boiling oil over her. She thought that she was going to be torn to pieces from the inside and out. She fell to the floor as her legs wouldn't support her, and the ninja made no effort to hold on to her any more, she wasn't going anywhere.

As she lay on the floor, she lost all sense of time from the pain. It felt like the torture had gone on for hours, if not days, when in reality, it had only been just under a minute.

Finally, the pain started to fade.

"My Torture serum, I believe that you know what it does." Arden said sarcastically.

Still barely able to move, Jennifer glared at the doctor with tear-filled eyes. How could he be so pleased with what he does? But no matter what they did to her, she wouldn't tell them anything. Her brother never gave in and neither would she.

"Y-you won't get anything from me." she said weakly.

"Defiant, just like your brother." said Arashi. "However, we do not intend to extract information from you, if you even have any of use to us. No, that was just a taste of what will happen to your parents if you don't cooperate."

"Leave them alone, you motherfucker! They have nothing to do with any of this!"

Arashi didn't pay any attention to Jennifer, instead he reached into one of the robe's pockets and pulled out a cellphone that he tossed at the girl, hitting her on the head.

"Your phone." he said. "We haven't even bothered to check it, since you probably don't have the number to the dragon on it."

"What makes you think that he even has a phone?"

"The turtles have given both him and that gecko whore of his some of theirs. My ninja have relieved them of them when we captured them in the past."

"Now call him." said Arden.

"If you think that you'll be able to trace the call, you're gravely mistaken."

"We anticipated that Donatello had taken precautions, but that's not what we're after." said Arashi. "We want to lure the dragon here and capture him again, and his family is the bait."

"I will never help you!" Jennifer snarled.

"How quickly you forget, my dear. It was not long ago that I demonstrated what will happen to your parents if you refuse to cooperate." said Arden, flexing his fingers with the syringes. "And that's not the only serum I have, there are several more at my disposal, not to mention an entire dungeon."

"As you can see, you are in no position to oppose us. Now, make the call, or could you honestly live with the consequences?" said Arashi.

New tears formed in Jennifer's eyes, not from pain but from sadness and anger. She had to make the call and she knew it. What other choice did she have?

"Devil take you all!" she said as she picked up her phone and dialed her brother's number.

'Please, forgive me, Ray-Ray…' she thought as the call got connected.

 **Yeah, they went there, forcing Jennifer to make the blackmail call. How fiendish!**

 **But just what will they say to Tyroth once they reach him, and what more do they have planned?**

 **Find out next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **Blackmailed**

It was lunch in the lair and Tyroth was in the kitchen, washing the dishes, while the others had moved to the dojo for training. Today, Splinter would have them execute moves that he called out. Normally, Tyroth would take part in the training sessions, but like the obstacle course, this exercise just wasn't anything for him. He wasn't as nimble as the others and thus couldn't preform the moves well enough according to himself, but he didn't mind watching and learn from them.

Having dried the last plate and put everything away, he left the kitchen and was about to head to the dojo, when his shell-cell rang. Looking at the display, he saw the name 'Jennifer'. Tyroth hurried to the guest room that he and Sephie borrowed and closed the door behind him, so he could have some peace and quiet.

"Yes?"

"Brother..."

"Hey, sis! What's up?"

"I'm… I'm sorry..."

"Sorry? What do you mean?"

"I… Mom and Dad, they… we need your help..." she said sobbing.

"Jennifer, what has happened?"

"I can answer that, dragon." said another voice.

Tyroth's eyes widened in horror when he heard the voice, and they then narrowed out of anger.

"Arashi!" he growled, barely able to contain himself enough to not crush his shell-cell with his hand.

"I am glad that you haven't forgotten me, Raymond Ottosen."

"Wh-what did you call me?" Tyroth asked shocked.

"Raymond Ottosen. That is the name you used before you became the freak you are now. After we discovered that, it was easy to find and capture your family."

"If you hurt them, I'll-"

"You will do nothing! Now listen closely, if you tell anyone about this, your family will suffer greatly. Understood?"

Tyroth didn't say anything, he just shook of anger as he tried to contain himself.

"I will take your silence as a 'yes'. If you want to rescue your family, I have a little challenge for you. Care to hear?" Arashi mocked.

"Get to the point!"

"A few miles south of our headquarters, there is an old condemned building. At midnight, the day after tomorrow, you will come to the top of that building, and you will come alone. Once there, you will face our champion. Win, and you'll be given unhindered entrance and be able to leave with your family, in exchange for a gallon or so of your blood.

If you are defeated, however, the good doctor will have you on his table. Should the fight be interrupted for any reason, it will continue the next night, same time and place, again and again if need be. Also, if you fail to show up on time, or if you are seen within five hundred meters of our headquarters, your family will be severely punished for your failure. So remember, midnight in two days, don't be late."

As Arashi hung up, Tyroth sat down on the bed, feeling completely devastated and helpless.

'How could this happen?' he thought. 'How did he find out? What am I going to do?'

He shed a few tears as he thought about his family, and what those fiends would do to them.

Suddenly, it knocked on the door.

"Tyroth? Are you there, love?" he heard Sephie ask.

"Yeah, I'm here." he said, wiping away his tears. "You can come in."

"We're done practising moves now," she said as she entered the room. "and we're about to do some hand-to-hand sparring, so I thought that you might wanna join us."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'll pass today."

"Is something wrong, hun?" Sephie asked, noticing that her lover seemed a bit disheartened. "You seem low."

Tyroth sighed and looked at the shell-cell in his hand, thinking for a moment.

"Jennifer called..." he said. "She was quite upset. A few days before we left Mutopia, she had met a guy that she liked. They have been seeing each other quite a lot since then, and Jennifer believed that she had found love. But when she was going to tell him how she felt, she discovered that he already was in another relationship and only played with her."

"What a jerk! Poor Jennie."

"I should be able to be there for her, she's my little sister, she needs me, and not just she but Mom and Dad as well." More tears began falling.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, honey." Sephie said, sitting down by Tyroth's side, putting one hand on his shoulder and the other on his hands. "I know how you feel, but we can't really do anything, not with how we look. At least you and she can meet and talk every now and then, the rest of us aren't as lucky. Besides, she's a tough girl, she'll be fine, and you know why? Because she knows that you'll always be there for her when she really needs it, even if it only is by phone some times."

"I suppose you're right. Still, I think I'll stay here a little longer, to calm down a bit, collect my thoughts."

"Okay, then I'll go and tell the others that you won't be joining us."

Before standing up, Sephie kissed Tyroth on the cheek, making him smile a little.

"Be strong, hun, everything will be alright."

After Sephie had left, Tyroth thought long and hard about what had happened and what he was going to do. Having lied to his beloved made him sick with disgust of himself, he hated it and he hated that he would have to keep lying to both Sephie and the others until his family had been rescued. He wanted to tell them but he didn't dare to, the Foot had scouts almost everywhere in the city, if just one of them noticed anything that could be interpreted as if he had told them, everything could become fucked up beyond all recognition.

There was no other choice than to do what Arashi told him to, at least for the time being. Tyroth had no doubt that the only promises that that honourless cretin would keep, were those of punishment, but he had to try.

'Mom… Dad… Jen-Jen… please hold out.' Tyroth thought to himself. 'I'll get you out of that hell-hole as soon as I can, I promise.'

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Foot headquarters, Arashi smiled triumphantly, while Jennifer still laid on the floor, crying heavily for what she had done. She had betrayed her own brother.

"I'm sorry..." she said weakly. "I'm so sorry..."

"I would say that this worked excellently. Don't you agree, William?" said Arashi.

"Indeed it did, master. It won't be long until the dragon lay on my table again. We will start making preparations at once."

"Please..." Jennifer sobbed. "...please just… just shut up… and take me back to Mom and Dad..."

"I'm afraid that I can't allow that." said Arashi.

"Wh-what?"

"You are going to be kept separately from your parents, so just in case your brother tries anything, he will have to make a decision on who to save, because he will never be able to save you all. But don't worry, we will take good care of you."

 **If things weren't bad before, they sure got that now. Tyroth has been blackmailed and had to lie to Sephie, while poor Jennie won't be allowed to meet her parents again. How will this play out?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **A Vision?**

Screams of agony echoed throughout the torture chamber as Jennifer, chained to the wall, was stung by the torturer's electrical cattle prod. Her clothes were torn and cut and blood stained what remained of them. Her body was bruised and had several freshly cut wounds that bled. She had dark rings under her eyes, from the lack of sleep, and they were red from countless tears felled by pain and sorrow.

"Still don't want to talk?" said the scarred doctor, Arden. "Impressive, but you won't last much longer. You will tell me what I want to know. Granted, I could simply use my truth serum, but this is much more satisfying."

Jennifer breathing was shallow and strained as she got a short moment to speak. Her throat was sore from all the screaming, so she could barely speak at all. She wanted to cry, but it was as if she had no more tears to fell.

"...p-please… s-stop..." she said faintly, coughing up some blood.

"There is a very easy way to make it stop, my dear. All you need to do, is tell me what we want to know, such as how your brother received his powers."

Jennifer hung her head, but didn't speak, much to Arden's frustration. He took the prod from the ninja and jabbed it into Jennifer's stomach.

"AAAHH!… Mu...topia..."

"Mutopia? What is that? Tell me!"

Jennifer continued to scream as Arden kept torturing her, but she refused to give up anything more, she had already said too much.

"Very well," said Arden. "if you intend to keep playing tough, maybe your mother can persuade you."

"…no… please don't..."

* * *

Tyroth awoke with a jolt, sweat running down his forehead and with his heart in his throat. Wiping away the sweat with a shaky hand, he looked at Sephie, who still lay sleeping peacefully next to him.

'Just a nightmare,' he thought. 'just like the past few days. At least, I hope that it was nothing but a nightmare.'

He had every reason to be worried, after Splinter taught him meditation, he had had visions of the demons' invasion. He wasn't sure if they had been visions of the future, or part of a warning or prophecy left by the dragons in his inherited memories. Likewise, he wasn't sure if what he had just had was a dream or a vision. Either way, at midnight this night, Tyroth would face off with this champion that Arashi spoke of.

After getting dressed, he left the guest room and walked to the kitchen to get something to drink and go over his plan for tonight.

The previous nights, he had gone jogging through the sewers at around midnight, claiming it was to collect his thoughts, when in reality, he had scouted the area where he would fight. Having been away for a couple of hours at a time, he hoped that they wouldn't suspect anything tonight. They had seemingly bought his story about Jennifer, though Tyroth hadn't told Splinter, the wise old rat would instantly know that it wasn't the whole truth if Tyroth told him himself, but because it was Sephie that told Splinter, the secret was safe, for now.

Talking a sip from his glass of milk, Tyroth went over his plan. About twenty minutes to midnight, he'd leave for a jog and head to the old building, once there, he would defeat his foe and try to extract information about his family, then go to the Foot Headquarters and trade some of his blood for his family.

He had no doubt that he'd be able to take down this champion, but he was no fool, he knew just how dishonourable the Foot was and that he had to be careful. Also, Arashi's promise was about as big a bluff as they come, no way that he'd let them leave. Even if he, by some remote chance, would honour his word, the Foot would still possess Tyroth's blood after this. Tyroth shuddered when he thought about those clones Arden made with his dragon DNA, not to mention the crossbreeds that he created by combining it with Monalisa's DNA. That was the part that he hadn't worked out yet, just how would he save his family **and** keep his blood from the Foot?

Not being able to find a solution, he figured that he simply had to cross that bridge when he came to it and see what he had to work with. He prayed that after the bloodbath he had left them with last time, they would think twice before trying to attack him.

Emptying his glass, Tyroth noticed that there were sounds outside the kitchen. Evidently, he had been sitting in the kitchen for so long that the others had started to wake up. Putting on a brave, Tyroth hoped that he could keep the façade long enough.

'Only a few more hours,' he thought. 'then I'll save them. I swear, Arashi, if you've hurt them, the burning inferno of Hell itself, will be cold as ice compared to my flames!'

 **Tyroth sure has a lot to think about now, even without the nightmare, or was it a vision?**

 **Sorry that this chapter was so short, but some of them will be just that, short. Still, I hope that you will look forward to the rest of the story.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **Only A Short While**

Sitting at the kitchen table with his friends, Tyroth ate his bacon and eggs, trying to act normal.

'Just a couple of more hours.' he thought, hoping that he'd be able to pull of the rescue mission.

"Hey, you alright, big guy?" Raphael asked, snapping the dragon out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, though I haven't slept very well these last few days."

"It's because of what happened to your sister, isn't it?" said Monalisa. Tyroth only nodded. "I really wish that we could help you."

"So do I."

After breakfast, Tyroth remained in the kitchen to clean up while the others walked over to the dojo.

"Man, I don't think I've ever seen him so depressed before. Aside from after his battle against that demon king." said Michelangelo.

"Don't remind me of that monster." said Sephie. She remembered Xazahl all too well.

"Sorry."

"It's okay, I just don't wanna to think about him. But you're right, Tyroth hasn't quite been himself."

"I don't blame him. Family is very important to all of us, of course we'd want to be at their side when they need us." said Monalisa. "Not being able to is difficult, even if you're human, but in our condition, it's close to torture."

"I suppose that all we can do, is to give him some time and be there for him when he need us." said Leonardo.

Just before entering the dojo, Sephie stopped and looked back at the kitchen.

"Is something troubling you, child?" Splinter asked.

"I'm not sure, but I have this feeling that there is something he isn't telling me."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, and that's what's bothering me. We haven't had any secrets from each other for years."

"I understand that you are worried, but if he wants to withhold something, it must be for a good reason. I trust that he will tell us when he deems it the right time."

"I guess..."

'...but I still can't shake this feeling that something is wrong. Tyroth, love, please open up and tell me.' she thought to herself.

Back in the kitchen, Tyroth almost dropped a couple of plates. Just barely avoiding it, he put away the plates and looked at his hands, they were shaking. As the time for his rescue attempt drew closer, he became more nervous and dark thoughts entered his mind.

What if he failed? What if Arashi had killed them? What if Arashi had learned of Mutopia? And what would Tyroth's friends and loved ones think if they knew he had lied? Would they shun him for lying to them?

Tyroth forced himself to hold back any tears, to not cry, he had to keep the façade up.

Time seemed to move extra slowly as Tyroth waited for midnight, it was almost as if it had decided to add to his torment. He had tried to pass the time in various ways, but nothing could take his mind off his family and their fate. He had even tried to meditate to be able to focus, but he just couldn't escape his nightmares. All his meditation did, was allowing him to see them more clearly.

Frustrated, he thought about heading to the surface early and seek out some Purple Dragons so he could vent his anger. But since he needed to be at his best, he couldn't afford to waste his strength on small fries, he also didn't want to risk loosing track of time.

Finally, after a painful wait, it was time to head out.

"I'm going jogging in the sewers." Tyroth said as he made his way to the exit.

"That's the third night in a row. You sure that you're okay?" asked Leonardo.

"I'm still a bit upset about Jennie, and jogging does help a bit with collecting my thoughts. It's a nice alternative to meditation, can't sit still too long."

"True enough. Just be careful, we're not the only ones that move around down here."

"I know that just as well as you do. Don't worry, I can take care of myself. As a matter of fact, I think I'll even go topside for a while, get some air, see if that helps. I got my shell-cell with me, if you need anything."

Exiting the lair, Tyroth started jogging and took the first turn to the left. Once he passed the corner, he stopped and peeked around it, back at the secret entrance. It was closed, just like he had left it. He didn't want anyone following him, and even though his friends were very skilled ninja, not even they could open that door without him noticing it.

Five minutes passed and the door remained closed. Satisfied with it, Tyroth continued on his way to the battle that awaited him.

 **It seems Tyroth is close to breaking from the pressure. And now it's not long until he faces the Champion of the Foot. How will that battle go?**

 **Find out next time.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **Champion of the Foot**

The dragon mutant flew over the rooftops as he made his way to the building where he would face Arashi's champion. Landing a couple blocks away, he carefully scanned all the nearby roofs for Foot ninja, before moving to the next rooftop and repeating the process, he did not want to walk into an ambush, even though he knew that that was just what he was doing.

Finally reaching the roof next to the old building, Tyroth spotted a lone figure standing in the middle. He was dressed in the same ninja uniform as any other Foot ninja, aside from that it was completely black aside from the eyes and a few red details, it also had the Foot's emblem on the belt buckle and on the shoulders. A single short but broad sword hung in a scabbard attached to the belt.

Looking around, Tyroth still didn't see any sign of more ninja.

'This guy has to be something special if Arashi thinks that he'll be able to defeat me alone.' he thought. 'Either that, or he wants me to win, so he can capture me in their headquarters instead. Whatever the case, I have to be vary.'

Drawing his sword, Tyroth took a deep breath before jumping over to the rooftop. The ninja turned towards the dragon, but didn't seem to do much more than acknowledge the mutant's presence. The two combatants stared at each other, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Tightening his grip on his sword, Tyroth saw the ninja placing his hand on the hilt of his weapon and gripping it.

"I'm gonna give you one chance to walk away from this alive," said Tyroth. "all you have to do, is to tell me where Arashi keeps the prisoners."

The ninja didn't say a word, not even in the form of a denial or an insult, he just stood there in silence, with his eyes fixed on the dragon.

With a swift motion, the ninja drew his blade with both hands, revealing that the scabbard had held two swords rather than one. Keeping his eyes on the weapons, Tyroth saw that on the backside of the handle, there were prongs, similar to those on Raphael's sais. The blades were about a foot long and three inches broad.

Swinging the two blades for a moment, the ninja then dashed towards Tyroth, who responded by doing the same. When they got close enough to each other, Tyroth swung his mighty blade horizontally at the ninja, but missed as the ninja deftly jumped over both the sword and the mutant, landing behind him and tried to slash him across the back.

Turning around quickly, the dragon parried the attacks with his sword and countered with a slash of his own. The ninja dodged the attack with a backflip, then followed up with a flurry of attacks, striking and slashing in a very rapid succession. Tyroth was forced to use his sword as a shield to block most of the attacks while he dodged those he couldn't block.

Breathing fire past his sword, Tyroth stopped the onslaught, forcing the ninja to duck and roll in order to avoid the flames. As the ninja ran for cover, the dragon kept unleashing a stream of fire at him, leaving scorchmarks on the concrete roof.

The ninja managed to find cover behind an old and rusted air vent, that turned partially red-hot from the intense fire that hit it. Tyroth stopped breathing fire, as it didn't get past the vent, and charged at it, slicing through the metal object with his sword. But, to his great surprise, the ninja was nowhere to be seen. Nervously scanning his surroundings, Tyroth couldn't see a single trace of his foe.

That didn't sit well with the dragon, he knew that ninja were stealthy, but to simply disappear like that, something was very wrong.

As he couldn't find his foe with is vision, he had to rely on his other senses. Sniffing the air to try and catch the scent of the ninja, he also listened closely for any sound that could tell him where the bastard was.

What Tyroth didn't know, was that the ninja had used both the vent and the dragon's fire as a smokescreen, jumping off the building while he was obscured. Silently climbing along the sides of the building, he manoeuvred himself into a more favourable position.

Now behind the dragon, the ninja prepared for another attack and silently got back onto the roof before lunging at his target, blades drawn and ready to cut down the mutant.

Tyroth was completely unaware of his foe's location, but his sharp senses and perceptiveness helped him notice sounds that were out of pace.

Faint footsteps, moving towards him from behind.

Spinning around to face the enemy, he had to dodge to avoid the sharp swords. But, despite his quick reflexes, one of the swords still managed to cut him across the chest, leaving a long cut. Though it was shallow and healed swiftly, it still hurt and it still bled.

The ninja once again struck out at the dragon. Tyroth countered by spinning around, trying to hit the ninja with his tail. Striking the ninja's hands, the swords were knocked away, landing several meters away. With his foe now unarmed, the dragon quickly lunged at him and grabbed him by the throat. The ninja struggled and squirmed trying to get free, but the dragon's grip was too strong. Tyroth wanted answers, and he would get them even if he literally had to squeeze them out of this guy. Lifting him off the ground, Tyroth held the ninja at eye level.

"Talk!" the dragon demanded. "Tell me where they are!"

As earlier, the ninja didn't say a word, he only tried to free himself from Tyroth's grip. As his strength wasn't enough to break free, the ninja struck out at Tyroth's face with a clawed hand.

The move was unexpected, as was the pain when the fingers sliced the dragon's face, leaving bleeding cuts. Wincing from the pain, Tyroth lost his grip on the ninja, who placed his feet on the dragon's chest and used it as a springboard, launching himself to a safer distance. The push also caused Tyroth to stumble backwards and trip on the edge of the roof, falling over it and plummeting towards the alley beneath.

The ninja quickly ran over to the edge and looked down into the alley, but the dragon was gone. He wasn't laying in the alley, nor did he cling to the wall or fly.

Expecting another attack, the ninja looked all around him, but Tyroth was nowhere to be seen. Thinking that the dragon somehow had retreated, the ninja deemed that their fight would have to continue the next night. Collecting his swords, he was just about to leave when he spotted Tyroth's sword near the edge where the dragon was last seen.

Looking at the blade for a few moments, the ninja then started jumping across the rooftops as he returned to his master, leaving the sword where it lay.

Meanwhile, Tyroth climbed up the wall. As he fell, he had managed to steer his way in through an open window of the building. As soon as he had recovered and wiped the blood off his face, he began climbing, but by that time, the ninja were on a far off building and moving away. Noticing that his sword still lay where he had dropped it when he was scratched in the face, he walked over to it.

Picking up his weapon, he was surprised that the ninja didn't take it with him. Carefully checking the sword for any kind of tracking devices, Tyroth didn't find any, much to his relief, the last thing he wanted was to lead the Foot to the lair.

As he made his way back to the lair, he went over the battle in his mind. The ninja was quite agile and certainly stronger than a normal human, but it was the clawed hand that piqued his interest. At first, he thought that the claws were part of the gloves, but as he thought about it, having seen them up close, if only for a brief second, they seemed to be real claws. This ninja wasn't human, or at least, not completely.

'Figures that Arden would have had this guy on his table. Those bastards seems completely incapable of honour. Well, I'm not giving up, I'll beat this champion of theirs and get the information I need. Then, Arashi and I are going to have a little chat.'

 **The enemy has been engaged, but there was no victor, and thus the battle will continue the next night. But what kind of champion have the Foot sent against our dragon friend?**

 **Find out next time.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

 **Revelations**

Back in the lair, the turtles were engaged in a heated video-game battle, while the girls cheered on them. The current Brawl match had the turtles using random characters, resulting in Leonardo getting Ganondorf, Raphael Olimar, Donatello Ice Climbers and Michelangelo R.O.B. To make it even more challenging, they were playing on the Spear Pillar stage, one of the more infamous stages. Despite the random characters, the fight was quite even, that is until the hazard gimmick of the stage interfered. In the middle of the temple, Palkia, the legendary Pokémon of space, appeared and inverted the stage, causing the characters to move in the opposite directions.

The sudden change threw everyone off their game, but Leonardo and Donatello, who were the more disciplined and level headed respectively, quickly got their bearings and went for the other two while they still struggled. But neither of them would give up without a fight and forced themselves to step up their game. Eventually the stage returned to normal, but not before Michelangelo was launched out of the stage by Donatello and lost.

"Shell! I almost had them!"

"Better luck next time, Mikey." Sephie said comforting.

"Just the three of us left." said Leonardo.

"It's on!" said Raphael, determined not to loose.

Almost a minute passed and the stage once again shifted, this time turning itself upside down. At that time, thanks to the combined efforts of Donatello and Raphael, Leonardo was defeated.

"What? No! Unfair teaming up on me like that, guys."

"You know what they say, bro. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'." said Donatello.

"Yeah, and now that you're out of the picture, Don's next." said Raphael.

"Oh, that's what you think." Donatello responded.

"Don't get cocky, hun." said Monalisa.

Unfortunately, Monalisa's warning came a bit too late. Raphael's squad of wandering carrots wasn't enough to take on Donatello's hammer wielding duo. It also didn't help Raphael that there was a Bob-omb wandering around the stage, and that he was tossed into it.

"What the shell?! No!"

"Sorry, Raph, but it seems like I win this round."

"Gold medal to Donnie, silver to Raph and bronze to Leo, while poor Mikey is left in last." said Sephie.

"You did great, love." said Monalisa. "You all did."

"Okay, who's up for round two?" asked Donatello.

"You're on!" the other turtles said in unison.

As they were preparing the game, they heard the entrance to the lair open. Looking over to the entrance, they saw Tyroth enter, back from his jog in the sewers. Happy to see her mate, Sephie got up from the armchair and hurried over to meet him.

"Welcome back, honey. I was starting to get worried," she said. However, her mood shifted instantly when she saw the bloodstains on her lover's chest and face.

"Wait, is… is that blood? What happened?"

Sephie's questions caught the attention of the others, who worried hurried over to their friends. Tyroth mentally cursed himself for not remembering to wash it off before returning. He had to think fast to come up with an explanation.

"I… took a trip topside and ran into a bunch of Purple Dragons, up to no good as usual, so I took'em down. Not much of a fight though, but they scored a few lucky hits. I simply forgot about the wounds as they healed."

"You should have called us." said Leonardo. "We know that you're strong, but you still need to be careful."

"Yeah, you're right, and I'm sorry, but no harm done right? All I need it a shower and I'll be as good as new."

Said and done, Tyroth took a much needed shower and washed away all blood, sweat and gore. But while he did that, Sephie's suspicions got the better of her, and she pulled away Donatello for a private conversation.

"What's up, Sephie?" Donatello asked.

"It's about Tyroth, and… I hope that I'm wrong about this, but I think he's hiding something."

"Hmm, I don't know him as well as you do, but I've got the same feeling. He hasn't been himself for a couple of days now. But why talk to me about this? Why not master Splinter or Leo?"

"Because of what I'm going to ask you to help me with. We're going to spy on Tyroth."

"What?! Are you serious, Sephie?"

"I am, and trust me, I don't like this idea either, but I wouldn't suggest it if I didn't think that it would be necessary."

"I don't like invading on anyone's privacy, but I understand what you mean. There are a few things that I could check first."

"Thanks Donnie. I really hate to ask this of you, but I'm so worried about him."

"Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this, trust me."

"I do trust you, all of you, but can we keep this between the two of us? At least for now?"

"You got it, Sephie."

* * *

Later, when Tyroth was finished with his shower and was drying himself with a towel, he saw his reflection in the steam covered mirror. Wiping off the mirror, he looked at himself. He looked tired, very tired, and he could almost see a dark aura around him, made by the lies and deceit. He wondered just how much longer he would be able to spin this dark web before it would collapse on top of him.

He couldn't continue like this for much longer, but with any luck, he wouldn't. As per the 'agreement', if the fight would be interrupted, they would continue the following night and the nights after that until only one was left standing. If Tyroth couldn't get the answers he sought the next night, the night after that, he would simply kill the ninja and be done with it.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the dungeon of the Foot headquarters, Richard and Erica sat in their cell, their eyes red from tears and a lack of proper sleep. For three days, they had been stuck in that cell, not knowing what would become of them, or what had happened to their daughter.

As the previous nights, the scar-faced doctor Arden came to check on them. At first, they were terrified of the hideous scar, and while they still couldn't look at it, they now had more fear for the doctor himself.

"And how does the two of you fare today?" Arden asked with clearly faked concern.

"What do you care?!" Erica snapped. "You have no interest in our well-being."

"How right you are, my dear. Personally, I couldn't care less whether you two live or die, but dead hostages make for poor bargaining chips, and thus I am tasked with keeping you alive."

"What do you hope to gain by all this?" Richard asked. "And where's our daughter?"

"He-he… Wouldn't you like to know." Arden snickered. "Our goals are beyond your understanding. As for your daughter, she has been well taken care of."

"What do you mean by that?" said Erica.

Before Arden could answer, if he even intended to, the door to the dungeon opened and the same ninja that had fought the dragon mutant entered and stood at attention.

"You return, and in one piece it seems, but without your target. Did he escape?"

The ninja nodded.

"A pity, but there is always tomorrow night."

"Hey! We asked you a question! What have you done to our daughter?!" Richard shouted, but Arden ignored it.

"You wanted to know what our goals were, and, like I said, you wouldn't understand, but perhaps we could show you a part of them."

Arden motioned to the ninja to turn around so he faced the cell. Then, Arden removed the mask. Richard and Erica's eyes widened in both shock and horror when they saw the ninja's face.

The left half was covered in green scales with red edges and was overall more reptilian than human. But it wasn't the reptile part that shocked the couple the most, but the human part. The ninja wasn't a man, it was a young woman, their own daughter, Jennifer.

"… No… Jennie… Jennie!"

But Jennifer didn't respond to her mother's voice, she simply stood there, looking at them with cold, soulless eyes.

"Wh-what… have you done to her? What the hell have you done to her!?" Richard yelled.

"She has been… augmented. I had a couple of sets of reptile DNA that I've used to modify her DNA. Quite impressive work, despite that I had to recreate the process from scratch after your son ruined my old lab and destroyed my other experiments. The only downside with the new procedures, aside from not being as effective as they originally were, is that the imprinting left her without a personality, but she is so loyal that she will kill anyone without question or hesitation if we command it, including herself."

"How could you do something like that to her?" Erica said, tears falling at the sight of her little girl, now more monster than human. "And what do you mean by imprinting?"

"Basically, it's a form of brainwashing, were we overwrite the subject's mind with whatever information we find more useful, altering the memory and personality in the process, leaving the subject a skilled and loyal soldier. It must however be implemented while the subject is being mutated, to avoid mental rejection or breakdown. But, since both the imprinting and mutation still are a bit flawed, your daughter is close to mindless, but not quite. The fighting skills we gave her, however, is sure to be enough to take down her brother."

"How can you be so cruel?! What kind of sick person are you?!" said Richard.

"He-he… It's been nice chatting with the two of you, but now I must take my leave. There are some… adjustments I want to make to miss Jennifer. But I will return, you can count on it."

Arden snickered as he left the dungeon with Jennifer in tow. The half reptile didn't even give her parents a glance as she closed the door behind her.

Erica and Richard were devastated, not only had they learned that their son, Raymond, was still alive, but now their daughter had been turned into a monster, a monster with orders to attack Raymond. Finding at least a little comfort in each others' arms, the couple couldn't but cry themselves to sleep in that hellish prison.

 **To all of you that thought that this story couldn't get much darker, you were wrong. Tyroth continues to lie to his friends, and won't put up with the Foot's games for much longer. But with Jennifer being his opponent, how will he proceed, not knowing that?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

 **Results**

The next night in the lair, the mutants had just finished their 'morning' training and most of them were heading over to the TV-area to either watch something or play video-games, it depended on who got the remote. Donatello, on the other hand, headed to his lab, and so did Sephie a few minutes later. She made sure that no one was within earshot before entering, just to be on the safe side.

"Have you found anything?" she asked the purple-masked turtle.

"I have, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it."

"Oh?"

"While Tyroth was showering yesterday, I took couple of swabs from his sword and ran them through the computer. Aside from very old remains of blood that he hasn't been able to clean, I found traces of fresh blood, his to exact."

"His own blood on his sword? How did it get there?"

"There are two possibilities. One, it could have splattered there when he was cut. Or two, it was transferred when his sword made contact with the weapon that cut him, like during a parry or attack. I did find something else that further strengthens the second theory, but it worries me."

"Really? Why? What did you find?"

"Microscopical metal fragments, most likely from his opponents weapon. That itself isn't that strange, but the fragments were of high quality steel, not something that you would find in the hands of Purple Dragons, but rather in the hands of the Foot."

"The Foot? Then why would he say that he fought the Purple Dragons? Do you think that they might have gotten their hands on Foot weapons?"

"Maybe, but the Foot are usually very thorough when cleaning up after our fights, so it is possible but unlikely."

"This doesn't make any sense. I don't like this, Donnie."

"Me neither."

"I guess there's no other choice then, we have to spy on him."

"That's not gonna be easy, his senses are very sharp, especially his sense of smell. However, I got another way that should work. I've made a program on my computer that can track the shell-cells without having to activate the emergency beacons. I can also remote control the shell-cells with it, so we can use it to make Tyroth's shell-cell call us and have it only transmit, not receive, so we can hear what he does without him knowing."

"That's perfect. You're brilliant, Donnie."

"It's nothing special, really." Donatello said with a blush. "As soon as he leaves, we'll start our little covert mission."

"I really wish that we didn't have to do this." Sephie sighed, feeling lousy about having to spy on her mate.

"And still you're going to go through with it." said a voice from the entrance to the lab. The two mutants instantly turned around and saw Leonardo, Raphael, Monalisa and Michelangelo standing just outside.

"What are you doing there? How long have you been there?" Sephie asked.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to participate in a game tournament." said Monalisa. "But when I hear what you two were talking about, I couldn't help but get the others."

"We've heard almost everything, and we want to help. You're not the only one that cares about Big T, Sephie." said Raphael.

"Speaking of whom, where is Tyroth?" said Donatello.

"He's in the guest-room, meditating." said Leonardo.

"What is going on here?"

The mutants stiffened. Behind them stood Splinter with a serious look on his face.

"Uh-oh, busted." said Michelangelo.

"Well?"

Sephie sighed, she had wanted to keep the others out of this, and though she was happy that they wanted to help, she didn't want them to get in trouble on her account.

"Please don't be angry with them, Splinter, this is all my idea." Sephie said, and explained what she had planned, how she asked Donatello for help and what they had found. Splinter stood silent and listened, he didn't speak until shortly after Sephie was done talking.

"Hmm… I am not angry with any of you, but I am disappointed that you would invade on Tyroth's privacy like this. However, since you are all concerned about him and want to help, I will let it slide, for now."

"Thank you, sensei." said Leonardo.

"But, should this prove to be nothing but a wild goose chase, you can all look forward to extra training and chores during the weeks to come."

"If we can help Tyroth, it will be worth it." said Raphael, and the rest agreed. Sephie smiled at how willing they were to help.

'They are true friends.' she thought. 'But if it turns out that Tyroth is only planing a surprise, I'll truly feel miserable for all of this.'

 **The entire lair now knows that something's wrong with Tyroth, and they will continue to spy on him for his own good. But will they found out the truth? And how will they react to it? More coming soon.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **Caught**

The time had come for Tyroth to once again head out on a midnight jog, and meet the Foot's 'super ninja' for the second time. He was very clear on what to do, if he couldn't get the information he wanted this night for whatever reason, then the next night, he wouldn't hold anything back during the fight. He would kill the ninja and get in in the Foot HQ.

After telling the others that he would be heading out, like he had done the previous nights, he exited the lair and jogged to the first turn to the left. When he rounded the corner, Tyroth was surprised to see April and Casey further down the tunnel, walking towards him.

He figured that they were going to visit the turtles, so he continued jogging to keep up appearance and greeted them as the three passed each other. April and Casey were a little confused, but thought nothing of it, as Monalisa and the turtles goes skating in the sewers sometimes.

When the couple entered the lair, they saw that the mutants piled themselves into Donatello's lab. Curious, they too walked to the lab to find out what that was going on.

"Hey guys." said April. "What's happening?"

"We're spying on Tyroth." Michelangelo said, pulling up a few chairs for him and the others.

"Spying? On Tyroth? Why?" said Casey with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not because we're bored." said Raphael.

Sephie sighed and began telling them what had been going on these last few days, and how she was worried that something was wrong. The clue that Donatello had found was the most disturbing.

"If the Foot is involved, this could be very bad." said April.

"Yeah," Casey agreed. "but why wouldn't Tyroth tell you?"

"I don't know, but we got a bead on him right now." said Donatello, pointing at his screen where a red dot moved on a map of the city. "That's Tyroth's shell-cell, he's moving above ground right now, and I don't like where his trajectory is pointing. If he keeps this course, he'll arrive at the Foot Headquarters."

"What?! Why is he heading there?" Monalisa asked.

"You don't think… that he's working with them." Michelangelo said a bit hesitant. He hadn't more than said those words, when he was smacked hard on the back of his head. Expecting Raphael to be the one behind the smack, Michelangelo was very surprised to see that it was in fact Sephie.

She looked very angry.

"Don't you dare say that! He would never betray us!" she said sharply.

"Sorry. I wasn't thinking when I spoke."

"Like usual, shell for brains." Raphael retorted.

"Pipe down, guys. I'm trying to work here." said Donatello. "He's stopped a few miles south of the HQ. Let's hear what he's up to." Donatello typed a few commands on the keyboard and the speakers gave of some static noise before the transmission cleared up, after which they could hear Tyroth talking.

"… the last time! Answer me!"

The group listened but couldn't hear any reply, only the sounds of the city.

"Still going with this silent act, huh? Let's see if the loss of an arm will loosen your tongue!" they heard Tyroth say, and right after there were the unmistakable sounds of battle. Metal blades clashing.

"That doesn't sound promising." said Monalisa.

"We must help him! Who knows what kind of foe he's fighting!" said Sephie, clearly worried about her mate.

"We will, don't worry." said Leonardo. He remembered that when Tyroth was captured by the Foot last time, they could hardly stop Sephie from storming the HQ. They were lucky that night, it was easily one of the most gruesome fights they had been through. "Grab your gear and head out, we got many miles to cover."

"I'll monitor the situation and tell you if anything happens." said April as she took Donatello's place by the computer.

"Thanks April."

"Good luck, my children." Splinter called out as the six reptiles collected their equipment and left for the surface.

While the turtles and lizards hurried through the sewers and across the rooftops, Tyroth and the ninja fought violently. The roof had fresh scorch-marks and cuts all over, evidence of the fierce battle.

The ninja was the only one that had scored any hits so far, but those were little more than scratches for the though dragon. Tyroth wasn't going all out against his foe, wanting to keep him alive, but he had stepped up his game since their previous battle, and obviously, the had done so as well.

Sparks flew when Tyroth parried the ninja's attacks and countered with a swipe of his onw, that forced the ninja to jump away. Tyroth didn't waste any time, charging at his foe, slashing wildly at the ninja. But not a single attack hit, the ninja was able to dodge all of them, albeit with very little margin.

Jumping backwards to avoid the ninja's counter attack, Tyroth noticed something off in the distance behind the ninja. Taking a second to get a better look, he saw six green figures heading towards him. And he knew who they were.

'What are they doing here?!' he thought. 'If this guy sees them, my family will pay the price! What am I gonna do?!'

To Tyroth's horror, the ninja noticed that he was looking at something and took a swift glance in that direction, spotting the six mutants as well. Quickly sheathing his weapons, the ninja rushed to the edge of the rooftop and jumped to the next one over, and continued towards the Foot Headquarters.

Tyroth was about to pursue hum, but halted himself when he remembered that he couldn't get too close to that building.

"Tyroth!" he heard Leonardo call out and cursed himself. It didn't take long before the turtles and lizards arrived to that building.

"What are you guys doing here?" Tyroth asked.

"We could ask you the same thing. What's with this solo vigilante jig?" said Raphael. "And who was that guy?"

"Some goon of Arashi's no doubt." the dragon responded.

"Honey, please, enough with the lies." said Sephie pleadingly with sad eyes. "We know that you have been keeping things from us. We don't know what or why, but you can tell us, we're here for you just like we've always been, like I've always been. Please darling, trust us, trust me."

Sephie's words and her sad eyes touched Tyroth deeply. His heart ached greatly, as if it was pierced by a spear. Being at his emotional limit, he couldn't hold it in any longer and tears began to fall. Sephie embraced him and held him close, comforting him with her presence.

"I'm sorry…" he said. "I never wanted to lie to you, but… I didn't have any choice..."

"It's alright, hun. We will help you, just tell us what's going on." Sephie said, wiping away a tear from his cheek.

"I will, but not here and not now. Once we're back at the lair, I will tell you everything."

 **Looks like the cat's out of the bag now (who thought that expression up?). The team have discovered that Tyroth has been lying to them, and want some answers. But, the Foot's champion has seen them as well, will that spell danger for Tyroth's parents?**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

 **Confession**

The mutants arrived back at the lair and Tyroth was feeling a little better that he was about to tell them the truth, but at the same time, he was very worried of what was going to happen, especially to his family.

As the reptiles gathered in the kitchen, they were joined by Splinter, April and Casey. Tyroth swallowed hard as he tried to find the words, there was no turning back now.

"This whole… mess started four days ago," he began, looking down at the table where he sat. "when Jennifer called. You all noticed that I was upset, but as you probably have guessed, I wasn't honest about exactly why."

"So, that story about her being used by some jerk wasn't true then?" said April.

"No, but I wish it was..." Tyroth said, clenching his fists so hard that the knuckles almost turned white, while tears started to fall. Sitting next to him, Sephie placed her hands on his. Seeing him so broken was painful for her, he was always so strong and for something to have this effect on him, it had to be very serious, and everyone knew it.

"The truth is… that she was forced to call me, to deliver a message. Jennifer...Mom and Dad... they… they've been kidnapped by Arashi!"

Everyone went pale.

"That fiend! How dare he?!" Sephie said with hatred in her voice, breaking the silence. "They aren't any threat to him!"

"Going after ones family, especially one that doesn't even have anything to do with this, just how low can that bastard sink?!" said Monalisa.

"When I get my hands on him, He'll sink another six feet!" said Raphael.

"Enough!" Splinter barked, causing everyone to become quiet. "I know that you are all angry, but it will not help Tyroth or his family."

"Master Splinter's right." Leonardo agreed. "And there's still more that we need to address, like this guy you fought tonight."

"I'm not quite sure what he is, but I'm willing to bet that Arden's involved." Tyroth said after taking a few breathes to calm himself. "But I do know his purpose. Arashi wanted me to fight this champion of his, if I would loose, I'd be captured, and if I would win, my family would be freed in exchange for my blood."

"Of course. What else could the Foot want from you, those clones and hybrids were really tough." said Donatello.

Monalisa shuddered, she remembered how one of those hybrids skewered and almost killed her. Had it not been for Tyroth insisting on them using the serums Arden had made from his DNA, she wouldn't have survived. Not wanting to think about that gruesome night, she decided to ask Tyroth a question, to take her mind off it.

"Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you."

"Believe me, I wanted to, but I didn't dare. If I told anyone, or didn't do what I was told, Arashi would make them suffer. The same thing would happen if I got too close to their base."

Hearing that, a startling realisation hit Sephie.

"What if that ninja thought that Tyroth had told us when we arrived?"

"Then we might have put Jennie and her parents in danger." said Donatello.

"I'm afraid that that might be the case." Tyroth said, getting up from the table and walking over to the entrance to the kitchen, leaning at the corner.

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry. I never wanted anything like this to happen." said Sephie.

"It's not your fault, love… It's mine..." said Tyroth. "I should have made sure that my family was safe, that no one could threaten them. I should have made sure that Arashi and Arden were dead! I should have ripped their heads off!"

Punching the wall in anger, he punched right through it, leaving a hole the size of a basketball.

"What I can't understand is why Arashi would have you fight this guy, why not just ambush you when you come to save your family?" said Casey.

"If he's one of Arden's sick experiments, I wouldn't be surprised if it's some kind of test-run. And I wouldn't put it past Arashi to mock Tyroth, holding all the cards and all." said Donatello.

"But how did they even find out about them? You didn't say a word when they had captured you." said April.

"I never said anything, other than what I though of those bastards." said Tyroth. "But I'd sure like to know as well."

"I think I have a theory." said Donatello. "Since you're part human and part dragon, your DNA might still have some human DNA left in it. I'm guessing that they somehow found enough human DNA to identify you, and from there, locate your family. It would however require that your DNA have been registered somewhere."

"Like my old medical profile, or the police records."

"But you burned Arden's lab to the ground, along with everything in it. Did he have backups?" said Sephie.

"If so, then he might be able to do the same with my DNA!" Monalisa exclaimed, worried about her own family's safety.

"This is very serious. We can not allow them to continue like this." said Splinter. "But we must not rush in blind, assaulting their base is not an easy task."

"We know, master. We need to plan this very carefully." said Leonardo.

"We can't wait! Who knows what they are doing to my family!" Tyroth snapped.

"Hun, I know how you feel, I felt the same way when you were captured. I didn't want to sit around either, all I wanted was to go and save you." Sephie said.

"She's right, and she was even prepared to fight us." said Leonardo. "Just give us a little time and I promise you, we'll get them out of there safe. You know just as well as the rest of us how dangerous the Foot's headquarters is. We were lucky last time."

Tyroth growled and clenched his fists, he knew that they were right, but that didn't mean that he liked it.

"Fine..." he sighed. "Just don't try to leave me here when it's time."

"You have my word." said Leonardo.

"And it's not like we'd be able to stop you." said Michelangelo.

"Try to get some rest, you'll need it." said Monalisa.

Sighing deeply, Tyroth nodded and walked to the guest room, his head slightly lowered from both fatigue and anger. Maybe a nap would do him some good. Once the door closed, the others began their planning.

"So, what's the plan, Leo?" Michelangelo asked. "Scouting out the Foot HQ?"

"No. If Tyroth wasn't allowed to get too close to their base, it's safe to bet that Arashi has posted extra lookouts. If we're spotted, Arashi will punish Tyroth's family without a doubt. We might already have done them harm as it is."

"Then we have to find a way in without you being noticed, and that's hard enough normally." said April.

"Then we better get to work." said Donatello.

 **Tyroth has finally come clean with everything that's been happening and the others of course wants to help, but will it be enough? No one knows what has happened to Jennifer, so they have a few nasty surprises in front of them.**

 **Next time, we see what happens while the group make plans. See you!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 **Nightmares**

Long, dark hallways formed a labyrinth through which a young man ran in a panic, opening every door looking for someone or something, only to find every room empty. Sweat dripped from his forehead when he opened yet another door.

"Mom! Dad! Jennie! Where are you?! Please answer me!" he called, but there was no reply. He had lost count of how many doors he had checked. Twenty? Fifty? A hundred? A thousand? He didn't know, nor did he have any idea of where he was or how he got there. All he knew was that he had to find his parents and sister.

Tired and on the verge of collapse, both physically and mentally, he stood still for a while, catching his breath. While he did, he heard a faint voice from further down the hallway.

"...Raymond..."

"Jennie? Jennie is that you?" he called out.

"Raymond?" the voice came again, now clearer.

"Jennie! Hold on, sister, I'm coming!"

With his hope reignited, he found the strength to continue looking. Running through the hallways, guided by the voice of his sister, he came to a stop by a lone black door. Opening the door, he found himself in a dark room, and as he entered it, the door slammed shut behind him. He tried to open it, but the door wouldn't budge.

"Raymond?"

Turning around, Raymond saw his sister standing in the middle of the room. She had a sad and worried expression on her face. Raymond hurried over and embraced her while he shed a few tears of happiness.

"I thought I'd never find you." he said.

"Why? Why did you do it?"

"Do what? What are you talking about, Jen-Jen?"

"We trusted you, loved you… and you killed us! You are not my brother… you are a monster!" Jennifer pushed away Raymond violently, almost causing him to fall backwards. Shocked by her sudden outburst, Raymond couldn't understand what she was talking about. When he was about to ask her, he saw that her appearance had changed.

Her eyes seemed lifeless and her skin was sickly pale. The clothes were covered in still wet blood from claw marks that had cut both fabric and flesh.

Terrified, he took a step back, and that's when he noticed that his hands were wet. Looking at them, he saw that they were covered in blood.

"Monster… you betrayed us… slaughtered us..." another voice said from Raymond's left side. There stood his father, he too pale and brutalized like Jennifer.

"This is all your fault… why should a monster like you live… when we have to die? You are not my son!" said a third voice to Raymond's right. Standing there, was his mother, just as torn as the others.

Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, they all collapsed and fell onto the floor. Pools of blood formed around their bodies and soon the entire floor was covered with blood.

Raymond fell to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks while he still could hear his family inside his head.

'Monster…'

Trembling, he looked at his blood covered hands and saw that his skin was being torn apart from the inside. Black claws sprouted underneath the nails, pushing them away, and red scales showed beneath the skin. The hands grew larger as the change continued throughout his arms and the rest of his body. Like his skin, his clothes were torn apart as his body grew and changed. Appendages sprouted from his shoulder blades and lower back, forming wings and a tail, while horns grew on his head.

Once the change was complete, Raymond opened his now blood red eyes and felt only one thing.

Bloodlust.

Standing up, he opened his wings and roared loudly as he thirsted for more blood.

* * *

Tyroth woke with a jolt and sat upright in the bes, sweating and hyperventilating. Looking around, he was still in the guest-room in the lair. Seeing himself in the mirror, he saw that his eyes glowed red.

'Just a nightmare, but… it's clear that I'm not well. My emotions… they're in turmoil, and my magic is reacting to them. Just like in the torture chamber, and the Dwemer vault, before I… before I lost it. If that were to happen here… I need help."

 **Tyroth is starting to loose control due to all the stress that he has been forced to endure. And all of you that have read Bloodrayne666's story A Dangerous Captive and/or my own Mutants Misplaced, you know what happens when Tyroth looses it. How much longer can he hold out?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

 **I Feel Like A Monster**

Walking out of the guest-room, Tyroth was very shaken from his nightmare. Needing something to help calm his nerves, he walked over to the kitchen. Throwing a glance at the lab, he could see that the others were still working on the rescue plan. It gave him a little solace that they were working so hard, but at the same time, he felt utterly useless, not being able to help.

Rummaging through the kitchen, Tyroth couldn't really decide what he should have. Tea has always been relaxing, but it wasn't strong enough. Alcohol, on the other hand, might be strong enough, however, in his current mental and emotional state, it might do more harm than good.

Deciding for the tea, while he prepared the kettle, Splinter walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see the dragon.

"Tyroth? I thought that you were resting."

"I tried to, but… I'm haunted by nightmares."

"I see, that is very unfortunate."

"I've had them since this all started, but they have gotten worse. I've tried meditating to get rid of them, only to see them clearer. I don't know how much longer I can take this, Splinter. It feels like I'm at my limit."

"That sounds very serious."

"It is. I awoke from one just recently, and I felt almost like when Arden tortured me with his fear serum. My eyes glowed red as if I was possessed. I fear that I will loose it and go into a rage, just like back in the Foot base, or the ruins in Skyrim."

"You require help, my young friend, and I will gladly give it to you. But this is not the place, come with me to my quarters."

Tyroth followed the old rat to his quarters, once there, Splinter lit some incenses and motioned for Tyroth to sit. The calming atmosphere along with the incenses made Tyroth feel a little more at ease.

"I helped you before to gain control over your instincts, and to conquer your nightmares after your capture, and I will help you again. We will banish these horrors together, just like I helped Monalisa when she joined our family." Splinter said as he sat down opposite of Tyroth.

"I really hope so, Splinter. That night left its mark on me, and not just the torture. I don't remember much from my berserker moments, other than blood and hate. Since then, I've felt the presence of that kind of rage deep inside of me, like if it is another personality, that of a monster. I almost feel like a monster, and after seeing the destruction I caused in the ruins… I'm scared."

"I understand. But you are not a monster, Tyroth. A monster would not fight to protect innocents from evil. You are an honourable warrior, who have saved the lives of my sons and daughter many times. The only monster here, is the rage within you. Do not let it destroy you, find your balance and inner peace, as you did before. Find a happy memory and focus on it, let it be your guiding light in the darkness."

Finding some strength in Splinter's words, Tyroth closed his eyes and searched his mind for a memory that could help him. The horrors still haunted him, but after a while, he was able to push them a way and find an old memory.

He remembered a time long ago, back when he lived in the northern most parts of Sweden, he was eight years at the time. It was late October and in the land of the midnight sun, it was now dark almost all of the time, making it a perfect time for stargazing. Living far from any major cities, there were next to no light pollution, especially in the backyard.

Sitting on a blanket in the backyard, wrapped up in another blanket, he looked up at the stars, his eyes filled with curiosity and wonder. Leaning against his shoulder, was his younger sister. They often came out to gaze at the stars and this night, they were treated to a rare sight, the Northern Lights. Looking like a curtain moving in the wind, coloured like the rainbow, the two were mesmerized by the beauty.

* * *

Tyroth smiled when he remembered those magical moments of his childhood and started to feel very relaxed for the first time in days.

* * *

But the peace didn't last. The nightsky of his memory grew black as the stars were extinguished and the Northern Light faded away. Dark figures emerged from every shadow and moved closer. Terrified, he pulled his sister closer in an effort to protect her from the black-dressed strangers, but he wasn't strong enough. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't hold onto his sister and she was pulled out of his grip, screaming and crying for her brother to save her.

Rushing to try and pull her back, he was just inches away when the figures faded away in the darkness, together with her sister. Her cries for help still echoed through the air. Left all alone, he fell to his knees and punched the ground, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Sinister laughter filled the air as two figures stepped out of the darkness, one was a Japanese man with dark hair in a ponytail, dressed in black and red robes. The other was a white man with short brown hair, dressed in a labcoat. The left side of his face was little more than a single large scar.

Looking up at the smirking faces of the two men, he felt nothing but hate.

* * *

Tyroth clenched his teeth and started to shake. Splinter noticed the dragon's change and knew that the night terrors had sunk their teeth in his happy memory.

"Do not let them win, Tyroth. You can defeat them." the old rat said.

Suddenly, Tyroth's eyes opened and glowed red. Snarling, froth formed in his mouth and he launched himself at Splinter. Shocked by Tyroth's sudden outburst, Splinter was still able to quickly jump out of the way of the berserker mutant, his claws slashing the air where Splinter sat mere seconds earlier.

"Tyroth!" Splinter cried out, but there was no response. "Calm yourself! This is not you!"

Turning his glowing eyes at Splinter, Tyroth growled loudly as his entire body started to glow red as well. Splinter couldn't help but to feel fear at the sight of the raging dragon. He had been told about Tyroth's berserkergangs, and how you could almost feel the rage emanating from him, and witnessing it himself, he fully understood what his children meant.

"You must listen to me, Tyroth. Giving in to your anger will not help you rescue your family. Focus on what matters the most to you and push away the darkness."

Splinter's words seemed to give the dragon pause, as his breathing started to become calmer and more controlled. The red glow, both in his eyes and around his body, began to fade. Tyroth fell onto all four, shaking as tears fell from his eyes.

"… I'm so sorry..." the dragon said sobbing. "I couldn't help it… as soon as I thought I could find some peace… all hell broke loose… and I couldn't control it..."

"You have nothing to apologize for." Splinter said, placing a comforting paw on Tyroth's shoulder. It was now clear that Tyroth was in a far worse condition that they had originally thought.

"Sensei! I heard some kind of commotion, is everything alright?" Leonardo asked through the closed sliding doors.

"There is nothing to worry about, my son." Splinter replied. "Tyroth was just in need of… venting a little of his frustration."

"Tyroth's there? I see. Do you need any help?"

"Not at the moment, Leonardo, but thank you for offering."

Once Leonardo had left, Splinter turned to Tyroth once again, and spoke softly.

"You have been broken inside, but we will help you heal and save your family. This, I promise you on my honour."

 **This chapter's title is a reference to the song by Skillet with the same name, which I do not own in any way, and it fits very well with how Tyroth is feeling right now.**

 **He's already snapped once, will there be more? Read on and see.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

 **Commencing Attack**

The next night, everyone was gathered in Donatello's lab as they made their final preparations for the rescue attempt, even Tyroth was there. While Splinter had tried to mend the dragon's soul, the rest had been quite productive. And even though they hadn't dared to scout the Foot Headquarters, due to that it most likely was crawling with sentries, they felt that they were as ready as they could be.

"Okay, if Tyroth's family is held anywhere, it has to be in the Foot Headquarters' dungeons." said Donatello.

"Unfortunately we can't confirm that. Their computer systems are heavily encrypted." said April. "But it has to be there, it's the most defended place they got. Any other place and they wouldn't be able to stop us if we attacked."

"That doesn't mean that it will be easy to get in." said Raphael.

"No, but there is one way. It got us inside last time we stormed that place." said Leonardo.

"I remember it too." said Donatello and brought up an image of the building on his computer, showing a fire escape in one of the allies. Monalisa and Sephie recognized it right away.

"That's where we sneaked in." said Sephie.

"Yep, and while it's bound to be well guarded, it might be our best shot." said Donatello.

"We can handle a few guards, but it's their alarms and surveillance systems that has me worried." said Monalisa.

"And with all right. One wrong move and every Foot ninja will know where you are in an instant, unless you have something to throw them off the trail." said April, smiling at the last statement.

"Explain yourself, miss O'Neil." said Splinter.

"Donnie and I have made a little gadget that should even out the odds."

"If it works that is, we still haven't tested it properly." said Donatello. He then picked up a box-shaped object from beside his computer. It had a couple of buttons and cables, plus a small diode.

"What's that? A bomb?" Michelangelo asked.

"You're not that far off, we have rigged it with some explosives. Not much though, just enough to destroy the device in case we can't recover it."

"Okay, but what does it, you know, do?" Casey asked.

"Once it's activated, it will block out all forms of communications within a mile's radius. Phones, intercoms, walkie-talkies, email, anything advanced, all they will hear is static. In theory." said April.

"But there are a few downsides." said Donatello.

"Of course there is." Raphael half muttered.

"Our shell-cells will also be rendered useless. If we split up, we won't be able to contact each other, but only until the jammer runs out of power, after thirty to ninety minutes, give or take half an hour or so."

"That's not as much time as I'd like, but it'll have to do." said Leonardo. "However, once their communications is down, they will know that something is wrong."

"Then you will need some kind of distraction." said Tyroth, who had so far been quiet. "Let me handle that."

"What?! You can't be serious, love!" Sephie exclaimed, shocked by her mate's willingness to, seemingly, go alone.

"I am, hun. I'm going there, with or without the rest of you, so let me do this and at least it will be in accordance to the plan."

Leonardo contemplated on Tyroth's words. They would need a distraction, that much was certain, and a raging dragon mutant would definitively draw the attention.

"Alright, I don't like it, but it does increase our chances."

Just like Leonardo, none of the others liked the idea, least of all Sephie, but they couldn't argue with the benefits. Likewise, they couldn't ignore that Tyroth could get in trouble, it had happened before, although he was ambushed that time. Sephie sighed.

"If you're gonna do this, then promise me that you'll be careful, okay? I don't want to have to rescue you as well."

"I promise, love, I'll make sure to watch my back."

"Then it's decided." said Leonardo. "April and Casey will wait in the Battleshell and provide us with a mean of escape when we're done. Donnie will set up the jammer once we're in, and start it after we have signalled Tyroth. Wait a few seconds before you start, then… do whatever you think will work, and we will free your family."

"They're gonna freak out when four turtles and two lizards show up to rescue them." said Michelangelo.

"And one rat. I will accompany you on this mission." said Splinter.

"Are you certain, master?" Monalisa asked.

"I am, my daughter. To save and protect three humans that may not have any way of fighting these foes, you will need every able body. And while mine may be old, it is still able."

"I hope that Jennie has told her parents at least something about us, so it will be easier to gain their trust." said Sephie.

"Whatever the case, we strike tonight, at eleven. Everyone should make sure to be mentally prepared." said Leonardo.

* * *

The hours rolled by, and finally, the time for the attack had drawn near.

April and Casey had parked the Battleshell in a dark alley a couple of blocks away, where everyone would meet up. Meanwhile, seven mutants closed in on the Foot's headquarters, moving stealthily through the shadows. Reaching the alley where the fire escape was located, they saw that it was guarded by five Foot ninja. They had to be dealt with, quick and silently.

Last time, Monalisa had used a trick she had used against the Purple Dragons, before meeting the turtles, and while she kind of doubted that the same trick would work again, throwing an old can could distract the guards long enough. Finding one among the trash, she threw it past the ninja.

Hearing the clanking of the can, the Foot ninja drew their katana and three of them walked forward to investigate the sound.

The mutants didn't waste any time and immediately attacked. Raphael jumped out of the shadows and jabbed his sai into the throat of one of the two ninja still standing by the fire escape. The man died almost instantly and before his companion could react, Monalisa had leapt at him and slit his throat with her fans.

The three remaining ninja turned around when they heard the bodies hit the ground and saw Raphael and Monalisa standing by the fallen ninja, as well as three more turtles and a rat coming straight at them.

A swipe from Donatello's staff knocked the sword out of the first ninja's hand, while Michelangelo kicked the second ninja in the ribs. Leonardo quickly, and with great precision, decapitated both of the ninja simultaneously, leaving only one ninja.

Terrified, the last ninja dropped his sword and reached for his walkie-talkie. Before he could use it, an arrow pierced both the device and his hand. Crying out in pain, he was swiftly silenced when Splinter struck him with his cane, breaking the man's neck.

"So far so good." said Donatello. "Right, if you dispose of the bodies, I'll rig up the jammer, and place it somewhere it won't be found."

"Okay. Just tell us before you start it, and I'll send a text to Tyroth." said Leonardo.

A few minutes later, the bodies had been hidden in the dumpsters, and Donatello had hidden his jammer in a small ventilation shaft, while it was far too small to use as an entrance, it was perfect for the device, and to top it all off, it didn't have any kinds of alarms.

Giving Leonardo the all clear, the blue-masked turtle picked up his shell-cell and sent a text to Tyroth.

"Done," he said. "now, we wait thirty seconds, then we start the jammer and go in."

* * *

At that time, flying a few kilometres above the rooftops, the dragon mutant received a text on his shell-cell. Checking the message, he saw that it was from Leonardo, and there was only one word. 'GO!'

Tyroth's eyes shone red, and he set his sight on the Foot headquarters.

"Wahl hin drem, Arashi. Fah daar vulon, ausul yol fen lokluv nol gosvern fod dinok bo nau qobo viing ahrk zeydaan fen ru ko sahqon rath"

Diving towards his target, mana encased his entire body and he shone brightly in the nightsky, only to shine even brighter when he ignited the magical energy, basically transforming him into a massive fireball.

Like a meteor, he struck the building so hard that it shook in its foundation, sending fire and glass shrapnel everywhere as his mana exploded upon impact.

 **And so it begins, the attack on the Foot's base has begun, and with a bang no less.**

 **For those wondering, the thing Tyroth said at the end is in Dragon-tongue and means: 'Make your peace, Arashi. For this night, hell-fire will rain from the heavens when death comes on swift wings and justice will run in crimson rivers.'**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

 **Dragon Unleashed**

Inside the Foot headquarters, the ninja went about their business, running errands for the higher ups, preparing for missions and more. On one of the floors, in a hallway with reinforced windows facing outward, one ninja caught something in the corner of his eye. Stopping to investigate, he walked over to the windows and looked out into the nightsky.

Speeding towards the building was a large ball of fire.

Taking a step backwards as his brain processed what he had seen, he then turned around and ran away from the windows.

"Hit the deck!" he screamed and threw himself on the floor, covering his head.

A few ninja looked at their comrade as if he had lost his mind, while some looked out through the window and saw what he had seen. But no one had the time to take cover before the fireball struck the windows and exploded, shattering the glass and filling the hallway with fire and glass shards.

* * *

Sitting in his throne room, Arashi watched a group of his ninja spar while he sipped some sake and thought about what he would do once the dragon was once again in his possession. He was abruptly brought out of his thoughts when the room shook at the sound of an explosion somewhere not that far away. Some ninja lost their balance and fell over form the shock.

"What the hell was that?!" said Arashi. Picking up his cellphone, he tried to call surveillance, but he couldn't get a signal. He then switched to a walkie-talkie.

"Arashi here, what the hell happened?" he said into the device, only to receive nothing but static. "Report! Somebody answer me!"

Furious over that he couldn't reach anyone, he threw the walkie-talkie at the floor so it broke in front of the nervous group of ninja.

"What are you fools standing around for?! Find out what's happened!" Arashi shouted.

* * *

Back in the alley, Donatello had just opened the window by the fire escape, when the seven mutants heard the explosion from the other side of the building.

"Whoa! Was that Tyroth's doing?" said Michelangelo as he climbed up the ladder.

"It has to be." said Donatello. "Unless there is someone else attacking the Foot tonight, with artillery fire."

"I hope that he'll be alright." Sephie said with a worried look on her face.

"I'm sure he will." said Raphael, placing a hand on Sephie's shoulder. "Besides, if it's anything that I've learned about Tyroth, it's that nothing can take him down once he's angry."

* * *

Back in the hallway, one ninja was still alive after the explosion. His uniform was burned and torn and he had pieces of glass stuck in his back. Coughing heavily, he tried to get back up.

His colleagues lay all over the hallway, most of them still burning, but even those that wasn't on fire, wasn't moving. They were either unconscious or dead.

Without warning, someone grabbed hold of the survivor's collar and pulled him up off the floor. Feeling lucky and relieved that someone had come to rescue him, that quickly changed when he saw who it was. He was face to face with Tyroth, the dragon's eyes glowing red.

"Oh Shit! The dragon mutant!"

"Where are they!?" the dragon snarled loudly.

"Where are who? Who are you talking about?" the ninja whimpered, squirming to get free.

"Don't play stupid with me! The prisoners! Where are the prisoners that you captured a few days ago!?"

"I honestly don't know who you're talking about!"

"You're lying!"

"No, it's the truth! If I did know, don't you think that I would have told you by now?"

"Funny, 'cause I was just thinking that I should have burned you to a crisp by now!" Tyroth snarled, pulling back his lips to reveal his sharp teeth with flames behind them.

"No! Please don't!" the ninja yelled in panic. "I swear I don't know who you're talking about! But, if they're here, then they have to be in the dungeons. Follow this hallway and go down a few floors and you'll find it. However, you have to go past one of our dojos, the way will be crawling with ninja!"

"Not for long, it won't. They will either get the hell out of my way, or I'll kill them where they stand, and the same goes for you!"

"Please, if you let me go, I promise you won't see me again!"

Tyroth growled loudly, and the ninja closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

To his surprise, he was let down on his feet. When he opened his eyes, the dragon was already walking down the hallway.

"If you hurry, you might escape this place before anyone knows that you survived. But… the next time we meet… I'll rip out your spine without hesitation!"

As Tyroth continued towards the dungeons, the ninja's knees buckled under him as it sank in. He had been spared. He had faced the wrathful dragon and still drew breath. Now all he had to do was to flee, tend to his wounds and go into hiding. The dragon wasn't the only one that would kill him, but he was the one the ninja feared the most.

 **A bit of a short chapter, but not lacking for force. Tyroth is now inside, and he's not taking any prisoners. I'm pretty sure he's all out of mercy on top of that. See you next time, and we will see what happens next.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

 **Scattered**

Hurrying through the building, Splinter, the girls and the turtles tried to avoid the Foot ninja and keep their presence hidden. Even though the enemy was in disarray from Tyroth's distraction and the lack of communication, there were still a lot of ninja in the mutants' path, some were avoided and some were eliminated.

"How far do you think we have gotten?" Monalisa asked quietly after they had sneaked past a small group of ninja.

"Hard to tell." said Donatello. "No more than halfway at the most. I was hoping that we would have found a security central by now, so we could have used it to find Jennie and her parents."

"We must not give up, we will find them." said Splinter.

"Nobody's giving up on this, sensei, and we all know it." said Raphael.

"Yeah!" said Michelangelo. "But I wonder how Big T is doing."

* * *

There was quite some commotion in the dojo after the explosion. The ninja's training session was cut short because of it and many wondered what was going on. While they all wanted to the cause of the explosion, and some had left to find out, there were a handful that claimed that if it was something serious, Arashi or someone else would have alerted them. While they couldn't really argue with that argument, not all agreed.

During the discussion, two of the ninja that had left earlier, ran in through the doors in an awful hurry and closed the doors behind them. Panting, they leaned their backs against the doors, and the other ninja in the dojo saw that the two had some blood splattered on their uniforms.

"What's going on? What happened to you?" asked one ninja.

"He's… he's here..." one answered in between his breaths.

"He? Who are you talking about?"

"The… Dragon!"

The mere mentioning of the powerful mutant caused everyone in the dojo to tense up, and they began to talk nervously among each other. Was the dragon really in their headquarters? How had he gotten in? Why wasn't there any alarm about him?

"The dragon? Are you sure?" asked a ninja that didn't seem convinced of what the two had told them. They both nodded, still trying to catch their breaths.

Suddenly, a large sword pierced the chest of one of the two ninja, having cut straight through the door behind him. The other ninja threw himself away from the door when he saw what happened to his comrade, and every other ninja recoiled in fear and began to back away from the door.

The sword was withdrawn and the dead ninja slid to the floor, leaving a trail of blood on the door. No one moved a muscle as it was dead silent. Then, the doors were kicked in, breaking off the hinges, and the dragon mutant walked in, blood still dripping from his sword. Setting his eyes on the ninja, he growled loudly as his body got covered in a red light.

"Draw your weapons, cretins, and face me like true warriors!" Tyroth snarled, getting into a battle stance.

The ninja were at a loss, they had expected the dragon to outright slaughter them where they stood, but instead, he challenged them, giving them a chance to defend themselves, but what chance would they stand against the strongest mutant in existence?

Still, one of the roughly thirty ninja, drew his katana and, with cautious steps, walked towards the dragon. Once within striking distance, he stopped and looked at Tyroth, who hadn't moved from the spot. Gulping and shaking, the ninja raised his sword and attacked.

Tyroth parried the attack with his sword, but the ninja continued to attack with increasing courage. After a couple more parried attacks, Tyroth responded with an attack of his own, separating the man's chest from his waist.

"Anyone else?" the dragon asked with a dark voice, while the remaining ninja saw their comrade bleed to death, if he wasn't dead already.

They were scared, all of them, but a few were more angry than afraid, angry that their friend had been killed. They drew their weapons and charged. Seeing this handful of ninja, made the rest realize that the only way for them to leave the dojo alive, was to fight, and fight they would.

With every ninja charging at him, Tyroth tightened his grip and steeled himself.

'You have made your choice…' he thought, eyes glowing intensely red. '...and that choice… is death!'

Swatting aside one ninja and cutting down another, Tyroth charged into the bulk of the enemies, roaring as the massacre began in full.

* * *

Meanwhile, the infiltration team rushed down an empty hallway, their senses on high alert to avoid enemy ninja. Reaching another hallway that crossed the one they were in, they stopped for a few moments to get their bearings.

"Okay, now where to?" said Leonardo.

"Not sure, either way works, I suppose." said Donatello.

"We could flip a coin," said Michelangelo. "but there's three ways to go, and… I'm all out of change."

"We go left." said Splinter, pointing his cane at the hallway to their left.

"You think that's the right way?" asked Sephie.

"My instincts says so, and a warrior does wise to listen to his instincts."

"Works for me. Let's go!" said Raphael, and he and the others started down their new path. But before they had gotten very far, a thick metal door closed and sealed of the rest of the hallway. The mutants barely managed to throw themselves out of the way, avoiding getting cut in half by the fast closing door. However, not all could dodge in the same direction. Raphael and Monalisa were now caught behind the door, back from whence they came.

"Shell!" Raphael cussed when he saw that they had been separated.

On the other side, the rest had noticed that they were a few reptiles short. Shortly after, they could hear Raphael on the other side of the door, a bit muffled but still enough to make out what he was saying.

"Hey guys! Can you hear me?"

"We're here, Raph, and we're okay. How about you?" said Leonardo.

"We're fine, Leo." said Monalisa. "But what's up with this door?"

"Most likely some form of containment system. Since they ain't sure of what's going on, they must have decided to seal off everything." said Donatello.

"Can you open it?" Monalisa asked.

"Um… not from this side. Is there any control panel on your side?"

"Not that I can see." said Raphael. "Guess we have to double back and take another way. Shell!"

"Doesn't look any better. I really don't like this, but we got no choice." said Leonardo.

"We're just gonna leave them?" said Sephie.

"Don't worry, Sephie, we'll be fine. I promise." said Monalisa.

"If we just can find a security central, it should be easy to undo this. But we have to hurry, I don't know how much longer the jammer will work." said Donatello.

"Then we have no time to loose. Stay safe, my children, and watch each others backs." said Splinter.

"We will, master, you all stay safe too." said Raphael.

With Raphael and Monalisa on their way back, the rest of the mutants pressed onward. Little did anyone know, that things would get even worse before it would get any better.

Reaching the crossroads again, the couple was just about to choose where to go, when a voice spoke to them from their left.

"So, you are the cause of our lack and of communications. I should have known."

Turning around, Raphael and Monalisa saw five Foot ninja led by the Foot's head scientist.

"Arden!" Monalisa half snarled, half yelled.

"Good to see you too, Monalisa. I must say that I was quite surprised when our scouts reported that you were alive and at good health at that. We were certain that my hybrids had killed you. But evidently, you are as difficult to kill as I am, thanks to the improved healing serum I made from your dragon friend's DNA."

"You sick fuck! You had no right to use Tyroth like that!" Raphael snapped. "I should rip that ugly head of yours clean off your shoulders!"

"Always the aggressive one, Raphael, but I have to wonder, why are you here?" said Arden.

"Wouldn't you want to know." Monalisa spat.

"Defiant as always, my dear. But unless you're here to assassinate lord Arashi, there is only one thing you could be after, the dragons family."

"I thought that you had gotten as low as you possibly could, but I was wrong. Going after Tyroth's family, you are a dishonourable fiend!"

"If words are the best you can muster, then you will not stand a chance." Arden taunted.

"Shut up and die, you freak!" Raphael shouted and lunged at Arden.

Two ninja intercepted the turtle, their swords clashing with Raphael's sai. Catching one of the katana with his sai, Raphael wrestled the weapon out of the ninja's hand and stabbed him in the chest with the other sai. Ducking under the other ninja's blade, the turtle jabbed both his sai into the man's stomach.

Scoffing at the failure of his men, Arden reached into the pocket of his labcoat. Clutching a glass flask in his hand, he threw it at the mutants, shattering it against the wall, the liquid staining the wall as it turned into thick vapours.

Monalisa and Raphael started to cough as they got the gas in their lungs and they began to feel strange.

"A little something I've been working on." Arden said. "My head-on-a-stick serum, bound to a very volatile substance, essentially turning it into a gas variant of the serum, specifically tailored to only affect mutant reptiles."

Monalisa looked at the scarred man with fear in her eyes, and fell to the floor. Seeing that, Raphael hurried over to his mate and, kneeling by her side, he too collapsed.

"Since you mutants are so annoyingly good at dodging even the syringes that I fire at you, using gas will avoid that problem. And I must say that I'm pleased with this first test." Arden then turned to the remaining ninja. "Let's take these two to Arashi, if they are here, then so are the rest and they won't be able to do anything as long as we have these two as hostages."

"You damned coward! Are you truly incapable of fighting honourable?!" Raphael growled.

"Save your strength, reptile. My serum will last for several hours, and when you will be able to move again, you will be safely locked up in the dungeons, or strapped to my table in your case, whore."

"No! No! Not that! Please!" Monalisa cried.

 **While Tyroth is slaughtering a room full of Foot ninja, the others got separated and now Monalisa and Raphael have been captured by Arden, giving the Foot even more hostages.**

 **How will the team solve this problem? Stay tuned, things will only get more intense from here.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

 **The Choice**

Screams of agony echoed through out the dojo as a pair of ninja failed to avoid the dragon's attack and were burned alive by his fire-breath. The floor of the dojo was coloured red by the blood of numerous dead ninja, the remains of their bodies spread out over the floor. The walls were covered by splattered blood and scorch-marks, and all of the training equipment had been destroyed.

Cutting down a few of the remaining ninja with his sword, Tyroth slashed the throat of another one with his claws. His hands, wing talons and even his face were stained by the blood of the enemies he had slain in battle. Now, only a handful remained.

Punching a ninja that tried to flank the dragon, the punch hit him in the face so hard that his neck snapped. Two other attempted to attack the dragon from behind, but Tyroth knew where his foes were and quickly turned around to face them, parrying their blades with his own.

The red glow around Tyroth's wings intensified, and swiping them at the ninja, the concentrated mana solidified and formed a shell around the wings with razor sharp edges. The mana wing-blades cut straight through the ninja's blades and left them with deep cuts on their chests, even leaving gashes on their ribcages.

Not giving them any chance to do anything, Tyroth finished them off by jabbing his talons into their throats. With those two dead, Tyroth counted three ninja remaining. Seeing that one of them was heading for the doors, the dragon growled in annoyance, he did not want any enemy reinforcements, not when he was so close. Channelling mana into his sword, it glowed red for a short while before erupting into flames. With a grunt, he threw the flaming sword at the ninja and impaled him, the sharp, burning blade piercing his torso.

As the ninja fell to the ground, Tyroth turned is attention to the last two ninja. Though he was unarmed, he wasn't any less dangerous. Charging at the ninja, the dragon ignited the mana around his right hand and, catching the hand of one of the ninja as he tried to attack, Tyroth skewered him, using his burning hand as a spear, going straight through the man's chest.

Quickly pulling out his arm from the corpse, the dragon had to take a step back to avoid a slash from the final ninja. He still received a cut on his left arm, but it healed swiftly. Tyroth grabbed the ninja by his shoulder and waist, and lifted the man over his head, then he slammed the ninja down against his knee, breaking the ninja's back with a horrifying crunch. Dropping the broken ninja, Tyroth walked over and retrieved his sword while looking at the battlefield. There hadn't been a battle there, it was a slaughter. Tyroth could have let them run, but he wanted to be sure that his family could get out safely, and he had a lot of pent up frustration.

Leaving the dojo, the dragon continued his search.

* * *

Meanwhile, Arashi was in his throne room, receiving reports from the ninja that returned after being sent out to investigate the explosion. According to the reports, a meteor had struck the building, but that didn't make any sense. They should have been able to identify such a threat early, with the equipment used for the search for Ch'rell's prison and all. Further more, there were some ninja that had found the bodies of their comrades, not killed by the impact, but in battle, there were even a few ninja that seemed to have disappeared.

"We must be under attack, there's no other explanation, but by who?" Arashi thought out aloud.

"I have the answer to that, master." someone said, catching Arashi's attention. The leader of the Foot turned his gaze to the entrance and saw Arden.

"William."

"It is the turtles and their lizard whore."

"Why am I not surprised. How did they manage to get in?"

"I don't know, master, but I do know how to find them." Arden said with a smirk and snapped his fingers. A group of Foot ninja entered the throne room, carrying the limp bodies of Raphael and Monalisa, both mutants cursing at the ninja. They grunted in pain when they were dropped at Arashi's feet.

"I'm gonna kill you for that!" Raphael snarled at the ninja.

"So you come bearing gifts, William. I'm impressed. How were you able to subdue them?"

"With my new Head-on-a-stick gas, right now they are as helpless as a fish in the dessert."

"How I have longed for this moment, one of the turtles at my mercy. It would be so easy to end your miserable existence here and now."

"Try if you dare, asshole! I won't hesitate to turn you into Swiss cheese when I get the chance!" Raphael snapped.

"Feisty as ever, but, if you insist..." Arashi drew his katana and held it against the turtle's throat. Monalisa's eyes widened in fear.

"Master, as much as it would please me to finally be rid of one of these freaks, at the moment they are both to more use to us alive. The dead make poor hostages." said Arden.

Arashi thought about it for a while, sheathing his blade shortly after.

"I see your point, doctor. Are you certain that they are incapable of resisting?"

Pulling out a tanto, Arden walked over to Monalisa and placed the blade against her cheek. Monalisa winced and closed her eyes, suppressing a yelp of pain, when Arden cut her cheek, but she didn't move.

"Leave her alone, you sadistic cunt!" Raphael yelled with a murderous look in his eyes.

"Quite sure, my master."

"Excellent. Now we just have to lure the rest of the turtles here, if we only-" Arashi was cut off when some of the ninja's walkie-talkies came to life. At first, there was only static, but it quickly changed to chatter from numerous ninja trying to find out what had happened.

"We got communications again, my lord." said one of the ninja. Arashi thought for a moment.

"Get me on the loudspeakers. I got a message for our guests."

* * *

Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Splinter and Sephie were heading down yet another hallway. They were puzzled by that the blast doors had been opened again, Hoping that it was Raphael and Monalisa's work, they pressed on.

Suddenly the loudspeaker started and Arashi's voice was heard. Obviously, the jammer had run out of power, which was bad news, but it was Arashi's message that was the most worrying.

"Hear me, turtles, I know that you have infiltrated my base and for that I must congratulate, it is no small feat."

"We're busted." said Michelangelo.

"But this ends now." Arashi continued. "I have two of you in my custody right now, and if you value their lives, make your way to the throne room and maybe you will be able to save them. And just so you know that I'm not bluffing..."

The mutants could hear someone getting kicked and grunt in pain.

"No! Don't hurt him!" they could hear Monalisa yell.

"My children, no!" Splinter cried out, his face, and those of the others, pale with worry.

"As you could hear, I am not bluffing. You got half an hour, then one of them dies. Remember, thirty minutes." The speakers then went silent.

"Shit, this isn't good." said Leonardo.

"We have to save them, we can't leave Mona and Raph with those pricks!" said Sephie.

"I don't see that we got any other choice." said Donatello. "We should be able to reach the throne room in twenty minutes, if we go now."

"But, what about Tyroth's family?" asked Michelangelo.

"As much as I hate it, we have to abandon that part of the plan."

"You can't be serious! We're just gonna leave them?!" Sephie interjected.

"We're not leaving them, Sephie, but we don't have the time to save them right now, let alone get them to safety, and we definitively can't bring them with us when we go to rescue Raph and Mona. For now, they are safer where they are." said Leonardo.

"And don't forget, Tyroth's still around here." said Michelangelo.

"Michelangelo is correct. I have all faith in that he will be able to rescue his family on his own now that he is here." said Splinter.

Sephie looked at the turtles and rat, her gaze moving from one face to the next, and sighed.

"Okay, let's hurry and be done with this nightmare." she said. But as the mutants made their way to the throne room, Sephie couldn't help but wonder how her lover would react, if he had even heard what Arashi had said.

* * *

"That damned motherfucker!" Tyroth roared, standing over what remained of a patrol of ninja and pressing the only survivor against the wall. While the ninja struggled and squirmed to loosen the dragon' grip, he saw that the mutant's eyes shone red and his body was also covered in a red glow, froth forming in his mouth as he started to shake.

Setting his eyes on the ninja, Tyroth reared his right fist, the red light intensifying greatly around it. Panicking, the ninja pleaded for his life, but seeing the savage fury in the dragon's glowing eyes, he knew that it was as good as pointless.

With a roar, Tyroth drove his fist into the ninja's head, crushing it and the wall behind it.

Slowly pulling his fist out of the hole in the wall, blood dripping from it, he forced himself to calm down, taking several deep breaths while the glow faded. He needed to think clearly.

"Calm down… I got to calm down..." he said to himself. "Arashi has got Mona and someone else, one of the turtles, most likely Raph, the grunt sounded familiar. They need help, but so does Jennie, Mom and Dad. What should I do?"

Tyroth thought hard about what to do, about who to save, he wanted to rush to his friends' aid, but he was there to save his family, they all were. He soon come to the conclusion that he couldn't save them all, he had to choose.

"I'm sorry..."

 **Raph and Mona are safe, but only for the moment, as Arashi and Arden are feeling greedy and wants to snag all the mutants.**

 **Meanwhile, Tyroth has made a decision, but who will he save?**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

 **Reunions**

Arashi sat in his throne, polishing his katana with a cloth while waiting for the turtles. Monalisa and Raphael laid by the wall to the right, a couple of ninja guarding them after they confiscated the mutants' weapons. In addition to these ninja, there were dozens more in the room and even more in the vicinity, ready to come to their master's aid. Arden checked his syringes for the upcoming confrontation.

"How much time do they have left?" Arashi asked, not even looking up from his sword.

"Five minutes, master." said a ninja by the throne. Arashi stopped polishing the blade and held it in front of him, letting the light reflect on it.

"Five minutes, and then this blade will taste the blood of one of these freaks. I think the hothead Raphael will suffice, Monalisa may still be of some use to us."

Raphael and Monalisa glared daggers at Arashi, but he only smirked at them. Suddenly, Arashi's cellphone buzzed. Sheathing his sword, he picked up and answered.

"Yes?"

"Master… I have found more of our dead..." said the ninja on the other side, his voice sounding weak.

"The turtles' handiwork no doubt."

"I… I don't think so, master… It's in the dojo closest to the dungeons, near where the meteor struck."

"There were many ninja training there, they must have slipped up when the explosion shook the building. How many are dead?"

"… All of them!"

"What?! There were over thirty ninja there, and you're telling me that they all died from the explosion?!"

"The explosion didn't kill them, this wasn't an accident, they've all been slaughtered! Torn to pieces! Ripped to shreds! Burned to ashes!"

Arashi's eyes widened and his face went pale. There was only on he knew of that could cause such destruction.

"He's here..."

"Master?" Arden asked, having noticed his lords sudden change.

"The dragon is here." Arashi said so only Arden would hear, and the doctor's eyes widened in shock. While he wanted the dragon on his table, the thought of the beast walking around freely in the building wasn't a pleasant one. Raphael saw that something had the two spooked, and it didn't take long for him to figure out what, or rather, who.

"Not so tough now, are you?" he said in a mocking tone, gaining Arashi's ire.

"Shut your mouth, freak! Or I'll-"

"You'll what? Kill us? I don't think so, if you do, you will loose the only bargaining chip you've got! And I bet that you remember what happened when Tyroth thought that you killed Mona!"

Raphael's words were true, truer than Arashi wanted to admit, but that night, staring into the rage filled eyes off the berserker mutant, he couldn't remember ever being so afraid.

"I can't imagine him being sloppy this time." said Monalisa, knowing what her mate was after.

If the dragon is here, there is only one place he could be heading to." said Arden, trying to make his master ignore what the mutants were saying and focus on what they needed to do, even if he too was worried about the dragon.

"The dungeons. He must be stopped. Our champion has bested the beast twice already, make sure that this will be their last encounter."

"I will see to it, master." said Arden and picked up his own phone to make a call. He had only just finished it, when the doors were kicked open and three turtles, one lizard and one rat entered with their weapons drawn. Every ninja in the room, save for those that guarded Raphael and Monalisa, drew their weapons and positioned themselves between their master and the mutants.

"So, you have arrived, turtles. And I see that brought the dragon's lizard whore and your vermin of a master." said Arashi, drawing his blade.

The team quickly spotted Raphael and Monalisa laying by the wall. Splinter gritted his teeth at the sight of his helpless children.

"You bring dishonour upon not only the ninja way, but on humankind as well." the old rat said with a stern voice.

"Big words, coming from a pest."

"Watch your tongue, Arashi! You have no right to speak like that!" Leonardo snapped. "Release Mona, Raph and Tyroth's family."

"You are in no position to demand anything. Not only do we have hostages, but you are also outnumbered."

"Pretty cocky, for someone that hides behind others. You're nothing but a spineless coward!" said Sephie, gripping her daggers tightly.

"If you want them so badly, come and claim them!" Arashi taunted.

Leonardo looked to the others, it was clear that they would have to fight and they all knew it. Nodding to the rest of the mutants, Leonardo led the charge as the battle against the Foot began in earnest.

* * *

Meanwhile, Richard and Erica sat in their cell, they had been woken up from their nightmare-filled sleep by an explosion some time ago, and not long ago, Arashi had issued a challenge via the loudspeakers to some form of intruders, one of which was a girl, judging by the other voices. And just recently, there had been some commotion just outside the dungeon, people yelling and then… silence.

Then, the doors opened and the couple gasped in shock at what entered the dungeon. A large, red humanoid dragon in black shorts and wielding a large sword, both the dragon and the sword had bloodstains, some on the sword still wet. Closing the door behind him, the dragon scanned the room, and seeing the cell, he walked towards it with a determined pace. Erica backed further into the cage and Richard placed himself in front of his wife. The dragon leaned his sword against the wall and grabbed onto the cage-door. With little effort, he pulled the door off its hinges and threw it to the side, he then entered the cell, his eyes never leaving the couple.

Tyroth looked at his parents and his heart skipped a beat, he had missed them so much these years, but at the same time, it hurt him to see how terrified they were of him. The mix of emotions was enough to make him want to cry.

"Stay away from us!" Richard said, snapping Tyroth back to reality. As much as he wanted to properly reunite with them, to be able to embrace them again, right now that wasn't important.

"Please, calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm here to save you."

"Save us?! You expect us to believe that?"

"Look, I know that I don't exactly look trustworthy, but despite my appearance, I'm not a monster. And I'm not with the Foot, quite the opposite actually."

"What is it with these stupid names? 'The Foot'? 'Turtles'? Is this some kind of Mafia war?"

"I'm afraid that it's more complex than that. I'll explain as best I can once this is over, I promise."

"Richard, dear, maybe we should listen to him." Erica whispered. "He could be our only way out of this hell hole."

"There has to be another way, people have to notice that we're missing." Richard replied, also whispering.

"Even if they do, how will they find us? This Arashi seems to have a private army, who would be able to do anything against that?"

"There must be something someone can do-"

"For crying out loud! Do you have to be so stubborn, Dad?! Listen to Mom, 'cause she's right!" Tyroth snapped, tired of their indecisiveness, not realizing what he said until it was too late.

"Wait, what did you just call us? 'Dad'? But-" Richard started only to stop when Erica walked past him and approached the dragon. Looking at the dragon's face with a mix of hope and fear, she locked eyes with him. Standing only a few feet away from the dragon, her heart beat faster and faster.

"You… you called me Mom…" she said faintly. "If you want us to come with you, answer me this. What did you find the summer when you were three years old?"

Tyroth stood silent as he thought about it, he knew what she meant, there was no doubt about it, but he was unsure of what to do. This would be a shock for his parents and he had hoped to keep them outside these kinds of events. But, he knew that it was too late, and he had already said too much.

"I found a leech, the first one I had ever seen. When I took to my Mom to show her, it bit me on my nose, and I got so scared that to this day I can't stand those things. I had nightmares about it for weeks afterwards, and Mom used to lull me back to sleep by softly singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'."

Tears started to fall from Erica's eyes from a mix of emotions, but the most overwhelming was joy. She threw her arms around Tyroth's neck, and he returned the hug.

"Oh, Raymond… It is you… It is really you..." she sobbed. Tyroth also started to cry as it began to sink in, he was home again, after all these years.

"Erica? Is it…? Are you sure?" Richard asked.

"There is a very special bond between a mother and her child. There is no doubt. He's our son, our little baby boy..."

Richard couldn't believe it, this creature was their son? But he saw it in Erica's eyes, heard it in her voice and felt it in his own heart, it was true, it was their son. Richard was unable to contain his tears as he joined the hug, holding Tyroth closely for the first time in years.

"Mom… Dad… I've missed you so much..." Tyroth sobbed as he held his parents close.

"And we've missed you. We thought that you died, what happened to you?" Richard asked.

"It's… complicated." Tyroth responded, breaking the hug and wiping his tears. "I'll tell you once you're all safe. Wait… where is Jennie?" He hadn't noticed it at first, but his sister wasn't in the cell. He hoped that she was in another cage in the room, but when Erica answered, that hope crumbled.

"They… they took her away… the man with the large scar..."

"Scar? Arden! We have to find her!"

"But, Raymond, she-" but Erica stopped mid-sentence when the doors opened. Tyroth turned around and narrowed his eyes when he saw who stood in the doorway, the Foot's so called champion.

"You!" he snarled and reached for his sword, and the ninja did the same.

"Raymond, don't!" Richard said, but Tyroth didn't listen.

"Mom, Dad, stay back! This will get ugly." he said, walking towards the ninja. Once he was a few metres away, the ninja charged at him and Tyroth responded by doing the same.

"Raymond… Jennifer… no, please no..."

 **The main team has found Raph and Mona, but can they deal with Arashi, Arden and all the ninja?**

 **Tyroth is finally reunited with his parents, but now he has to fight his own sister one final time, without knowing it.**

 **That's two cliffhangers for the prize of one, chew on that!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

 **Memories**

The three turtles, Splinter and Sephie fought bravely against the small army of ninja. Splinter, Donatello and Michelangelo focused mainly on disrupting the enemy, disarming them and striking at their knees and head, occasionally killing some of them. Leonardo and Sephie used their bladed weapons to cut down any ninja that were between them and Raphael and Monalisa.

Monalisa watched her family and friend fight, where as her mate could only listen, laying with his back against the action.

"How's it going?" Raphael asked.

"It could be better, the Foot outnumber them."

"Okay, now then?"

"Now!"

Monalisa and Raphael suddenly sprung to their feet, surprising the ninja guarding them. Quick as a flash, the mutant couple beat the two ninja senseless and retrieved their weapons. With a nod to each other, they then joined the fight, giving the other mutants some well needed aid.

"Need some help, Don?" Raphael asked with a smirk when he stabbed the ninja Donatello was fighting with in the back.

"Thanks, bro, but I thought that the two of you were incapacitated."

"We were, but it didn't last for very long." said Monalisa, slashing down another ninja. "The effect wore off shortly after we got here, but there were too many ninja for us to deal with at the time. When we heard what Arashi planned, we simply waited for you guys. Sorry that we made you worry."

"Hey, you're okay, and that's enough for me." said Michelangelo.

"Ditto, now let's deal with these fools and go and help Tyroth." said Sephie.

* * *

Arashi was furious with Arden, who had guaranteed that his gas worked. Now their hostages were aiding the rest of the mutants, and the only thing they could do at the moment was to call in more ninja. With the press of a button, several doors and trapdoors opened and the number of Foot ninja more than doubled.

* * *

While the mutants and the Foot fought, Tyroth was locked in combat with the Foot's champion. He slashed with both sword and claws like crazy against his foe, while the ninja did the same. While Tyroth managed to block and parry the ninja's attacks, the ninja had to jump, duck and dodge to avoid the dragon's attacks, as one slash from his mighty blade could cut straight through a man, weapons and all.

The battle had left most of the dungeon in ruins, as much were cut to pieces, crushed or burned. Even the fighters had shown signs of the battle in the form of various cuts, but the wounds on both had healed, leaving only bloodstains as evidence of their fight, aside from the cuts on the ninja's uniform.

Erica and Richard watched the battle from their cell in awe and horror. The way their son fought was so unlike him, it was so fierce, almost beast like. But, what scared them the most was that they knew who their son was fighting, and he wouldn't listen.

After blocking an overhead slash, Tyroth countered with a slash aimed at the ninja's knees. The ninja saw this and jumped over the blade with ease, evading the attack completely, however, the ninja wasn't able to avoid the dragon's follow up attack. Immediately after he had swung his sword, Tyroth spun around and struck the ninja on the hip with his tail, sending the ninja flying.

Seeing his chance, with the ninja temporary floored, Tyroth dashed toward his foe, with his sword raised for the kill.

"Raymond! Stop!" Erica cried out, finally reaching his ears.

"That's your sister! That's Jennifer!" Richard yelled.

Stopping a few feet in front of the ninja, his sword still raised, Tyroth had a look of shock and disbelief on his face. It couldn't be…

While the dragon was distracted, the ninja threw one of the short swords at him, impaling him by the collarbone, causing him to drop his sword and stagger backwards. With the ninja lunging at him, Tyroth reacted by breathing fire at his attacker, and while the ninja managed to duck under the flames, they still managed to set the mask on fire.

The ninja quickly pulled off the burning piece of cloth, and Tyroth couldn't believe his eyes. It was really Jennifer, but changed. Her eyes were murderous, and yet strangely empty. The left side of her face was completely covered in green scales with a light red hue at the edges, Tyroth recognized that, it was very similar to that of the crossbreeds Arden had created before. Tyroth's blood boiled at the mere thought of that bastard laying even a finger on Jennifer, but the shock and sorrow he felt was almost too much to bare. He didn't know what to do. How could he save her?

Wasting no time, Jennifer continued her attacks, trying to slash Tyroth with her last sword. Coming to his senses, Tyroth managed to dodge the attacks, despite still having the other blade in his torso. He needed to find a way to stop Jennifer without hurting her, but how?

As they moved through the room, attacking and dodging respectively, Tyroth noticed several tools of torture laying on the floor next to them, among which there was a tazer, still in what appeared to be working order. Seeing this, the dragon got an idea.

Shoving away Jennifer with a kick. Tyroth threw himself toward the tazer and grabbed it. He prayed that his plan would work and began channelling his mana into the device, causing it to glow red. With Jennifer charging at him, Tyroth switched on the tazer and red sparks formed at the tips. Before Jennifer was able to properly attack the dragon, Tyroth jabbed the tazer into Jennifer's stomach and red electricity surged through her body, making her cry out in pain before collapsing.

"Jennifer!"

"Mom! Dad! Stay back! She may still be dangerous!" Tyroth cautioned. As he knelt beside her, Jennifer's eyes began to flutter and slowly opening.

"T-tyroth..." she said.

"I'm here, sis. Are you alright?"

"I'm… sorry… for what I did. I didn't want to fight you, but… I couldn't help it." she said, tears falling from her eyes, once again filled with life. "I tried to fight back, I really did, but I was too weak."

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault." Tyroth said, pulling Jennifer into a warm hug. "I know how it is to have someone else controlling you."

"Jennifer!" Erica called out and threw herself around her daughter's neck as soon as Tyroth had broken the hug, and Richard wasn't far behind. "I thought that we had lost you."

"Mom, Dad, I was so scared. I wanted to help you, but I couldn't."

"What did those bastards do to you?" Richard asked, looking at Jennifer's reptilian features.

"They… they made me call Ty- I mean, Raymond, then they forced him to do as they said, or they would punish you. After that, they brought me to what I thought was another dungeon, but it was a lab, and Arden… he sedated me. After that, I have some memories..."

 **Flashback**

Arashi walked into Arden's lab, anxious to see the doctor's latest creation, as it was less than a day until it had to be ready to face the dragon in combat.

"Ah, master. Here to check the results of my labour I take it." Arden said when he saw Arashi enter the lab.

"Correct, doctor. I hope that things are going well."

Arden nodded and pointed at a giant glass tube at the far side of the room. Floating in the clear liquid inside, was a young woman with blond hair. Aside from the breathing mask, she was completely naked, which made it easy to see that she wasn't fully human. Green scales with a red hue covered her shins, lower arms, hands, a portion of her chest above the breasts and the left side of her face. If one looked slightly from the side, one could also see some scales on her sides continuing to her back. Additionally, she was rather muscular and well built, and instead of fingernails she had black claws.

Arashi eyed the woman with suspicion, and Arden noticed this.

"Is something wrong, master? You look troubled."

"I expected something… more, than a slightly mutated human."

"Do no be fooled by her appearance, master. Young miss Jennifer's augmentations goes deep."

"Is that so? Tell me then, will she be able to deal with the dragon?"

"She will, there's no need for concern. I actually wanted to keep her mostly human, even though I honestly didn't have much of a choice since the dragon destroyed my old lab. This new process isn't perfected yet, but when it is, it will be superior to the old one. But the reason for keeping her human-like, is to trick the dragon, if he sees anything non-human, he'll be more cautious, but if he believes that he's fighting a human, he'll be caught off guard by her power."

"I see. What kind of DNA did you use for her? The scales look a bit familiar."

"The same I used for the crossbreeds, a mix of the dragon's and that slut, Monalisa. Jennifer here will be the first of a new breed of mutant warriors, for I have learned from the past. The turtles were able to hold their own against both the clones and crossbreeds, despite being outnumbered, and that was before they strengthened themselves with my super serums. What I want, is mutants that can take on the turtles one-on-one, and now I'm very close to perfecting that. Just imagine when we can make superior dragon mutants for the Shredder's army."

"A pleasant thought indeed, but there is one thing that puzzles me. Only half of her face shows signs of mutation, is that a flaw or do you have a reason for that?"

"That is a bit of a test, to see just how precise I can be with the new procedure, you could also say that it is my… signature, one part of the face disfigured. And should the dragon manage to unmask her, he's in for quite the shock."

"I must question if that is a smart move, William, we've both seen how he reacted when he thought that Monalisa was killed."

"You speak true, master, but I've seen the security footage from that battle, before the dragon entered the fray, and the turtles were hesitant to fight the clones due to their resemblance to the dragon. He won't be able to do anything against his own sister once he learns of her fate, she will be the ultimate weapon against him. And should he succeed in killing her before that, his spirit will be utterly crushed when he realizes that he killed her. He will feel anger, but he will be overwhelmed by sorrow and guilt, and be rendered helpless."

"It seems like you've got it all figured out. How long until she's ready?"

"Another hour, and then she'll be ready for a 'test-run', a sparring match against our ninja. I just need to finish the imprinting."

Arashi took another look at Jennifer, and saw her eyelids flutter and slowly open halfway, only to slowly close again.

"Is she awake?" he asked, rather surprised.

"To a certain extent, yes, but it's nothing to worry about, it is required for the imprinting, a minor flaw that I will correct later, right now, I must finish the process."

"So she is aware then? Can she hear us?"

"I believe she can, but it matters not. Soon, her mind will be overwritten and she will be ready. Though, the more time I have to work on her, the longer she will survive."

"Time is of the essence, doctor, I need her to be ready for the dragon."

"Oh, she will." Arden said with an evil smirk.

 **End Flashback**

"… I heard everything they said… it was horrible, I was trapped inside my own body while they did this to me..." Jennifer said with tears running down her cheeks. Erica pulled her closer, trying to comfort her, but she could hardly believe it all.

"Bastards!" Tyroth growled, clenching his fists. "And they call me monster. I swear, those fuckers will pay with their lives!"

"But why would anyone do something like this? What are they after?" said Richard, keeping an arm around his wife and daughter.

"It's me they're after, or rather my DNA, my dragon DNA. Jennie already told us what they want to do with it, an army. And they went after you to get to me. What I don't understand is how they found out about you. But that will have to wait, right now I have to get the three of you to safety."

"We're not going anywhere. Jennie hasn't recovered nearly enough to move, and you're injured too!" Erica protested. "At least let us tend to your wounds first."

"Mom, you don't have to worry about Raymond, he'll be fine." said Jennifer.

Erica and Richard didn't understand what Jennifer was talking about. As such, they were shocked when Tyroth pulled out the blade from his torso.

"I had almost forgotten about this." he said as the wound closed itself, to the amazement of his parents.

"That's one of the reasons why Arashi is after his DNA, rapid healing. And after what Arden did to me, I also have that ability, if only part of it, but I'll be fine."

"This is just too much to take in right now. Can't we take this at a later time?" said Richard.

"That's what I've been saying since I got here." said Tyroth while collecting the swords he and Jennifer had used. "Come on, I know a way out. Just be warned, the scenery on the way ain't pretty."

Tyroth led his family out the way he came, and his parents were horrified by how the hallway looked. Almost a dozen dead Foot ninja lay on the way, most of them were cut to pieces and some were burned to a crisp.

"Raymond… did you do… this?" Erica asked, no able to fathom what she saw.

"It was necessary, I couldn't have any threats to you."

After a few minutes, they reached a part of the hallway that was located in the outer parts of the building. Walking up to the glass wall, Tyroth broke a section of it with a well placed punch. The wind blew strong as he pulled his entire family into a big hug.

"Hold on tight." he said. Before anyone could ask why, he lifted them all up and jumped out through the hole. The humans screamed in fear as they all fell through the air. They were so scared that they didn't notice when they levelled out.

"You can stop screaming now if you want to. There's only a few blocks left, then you'll be safe." said Tyroth.

It took only a few more minutes before Tyroth landed in a dark alley. There stood the Battleshell, hidden in the shadows. The rear doors opened and April waved at Tyroth, a smile on her face, but that smile faded quickly when she saw the uniform Jennifer wore, and the symbols that adorned it. Tyroth noticed her worry.

"It's okay, April. She's… my sister. It's complicated."

"When isn't it? Hurry in, before we're spotted."

It didn't take long before they were all inside the truck, and Tyroth quickly introduced everyone. April and Casey couldn't help but look at Jennifer's half-reptilian face.

"Now that you're all safe, I'll head back to help the others."

"Good luck, man. Bring'em all back." said Casey.

"Wait! I'm coming too!" said Jennifer, surprising everyone.

"Jennifer?" Erica exclaimed shocked.

"Out of the question! I just got you out of that place!" said Tyroth.

"They're my friends too! I want to help them as much as you do!"

"You're staying here! You're not cut out for this!"

"Not cut out for this?! I've been cut into shape for this! Literally! I still remember everything they pumped into my mind, and you know that I can fight! And I want to make them pay for what they did to me, to us! You would do the same!"

Tyroth growled in annoyance, but she had a point, several in fact, and he had done the same, both against Overlord, Xazahl and the Foot. If anyone had hurt those he cared about, he would be hell-bent on making them pay.

"Fine." he sighed, shocking the others, his parents more so.

"Raymond!"

"Are you serious?"

"I can't deny her the right of vengeance, and she is capable of taking care of herself."

"Thank you, brother."

"Don't thank me just yet, there are a few things I want to make clear for you. We stick together all the time, I don't want you running off on your own. And when I say that we leave, we leave, on exceptions. Understood?"

"I understand, I promise that I'll follow your lead. But before we go, I want to make some adjustments to this hideous outfit."

"Raymond, Jennifer, please be careful and look after each other." said Richard.

"Richard?"

"We can't stop them, honey, we can only pray for their safety."

"I suppose you're right. I just don't like any of this. We almost lost our daughter, then we got both her and our son back and now they're both going back into that horrible place."

"I know that you're worried, and with all right, but Tyroth, emh, Raymond can handle this. Just have some faith, okay?" April said comforting.

"I promise that we'll be careful, Mom, and we'll return safe and sound." Tyroth said, hugging both his parents. "But we really have to go now. That is, if you're ready, sis."

"I'm ready, just wanted to get rid of these wretched marks." she said, having removed the belt buckle and shoulder patches with the Foot's symbol.

"Then let's go, and don't forget these." said Tyroth and handed her her swords.

Once the siblings left the Battleshell, Casey turned to the Ottosens.

"So, any of you knowing what's going on?" he asked.

"I was hoping that you could tell us, but at the very least we can tell you what we have learned so far." said Erica.

"Sounds good, then we will tell you the rest." said April. "Or some of it at least. I think that the others should be the ones to tell you the full story."

 **Whew, that was a close call, but yay, Jennifer has been saved! And Mona and Raph are alright too.**

 **But what Arden did to poor Jennifer was truly monstrous. Bet she'll want to get some payback, how will that go?**

 **Find out next time. :)**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

 **Revenge**

Tyroth and Jennifer mad their way through the alleys and across the rooftops, and finally, they reached their target. Flying them both to the Foot headquarters, Tyroth entered through one of the windows he had broken.

"I wanted to ask you this earlier, Jennie, but I didn't want to worry Mom and Dad any more than necessary. Are you prepared to kill?" Tyroth asked.

"I've already killed, when they… tested me. I know that it wasn't really me, but I still remember it clearly, and after all they have done, I really want to kill those responsible and any who stands in our way."

"Just make sure you remember what we agreed on, and stay close by."

"I will. Now, if I recall correctly, I think the throne-room is this way."

"My memory say roughly the same. Let's hurry, the others may not have much time."

The siblings rushed through the hallways, making their way to the floor where the throne-room was. Passing a corner, however, they ran into a patrol of ninja.

"There are the intruders!" one ninja shouted when he saw the siblings.

"Shit! It's the dragon!" another yelled.

"We need reinforcements! I'll go and get some!" yelled a third as he hightailed it away from the upcoming fight.

"Stand your ground! They mustn't reach lord Arashi!" the first ninja commanded.

"Great, more fools that will waste our time." Tyroth complained. "Ready for this, Jen-Jen?"

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, Ray-Ray." she said, drawing her blades. "Let's waste these assholes!"

The two charged at the ninja, who responded by throwing kunai and shuriken at them, but these were deflected and avoided without leaving as much as scratch on the siblings.

Tyroth easily cut down a couple of ninja, neither their swords nor their bodies offering any resistance for the sharp blade the dragon wielded.

Jennifer moved swiftly, cutting off the hand of one ninja and stabbing him in the chest, then continued to the next ninja. He swung his katana at her, but she jumped over it and drove both her blades into the man's chest, knocking him on his back with her momentum. Jumping back on her feet, Jennifer quickly engaged another ninja, parrying his attack.

Looking at his sister, Tyroth saw that she grimaced a little each time she took a life, she was clearly having problems accepting what she did, but still didn't let that stop her. Tyroth remembered feeling the same when he was still new at the vigilante business, he still felt that way but he had learned that it couldn't be avoided.

As he cut down a few more ninja, he saw even more ninja approaching, evidently the ninja that ran had returned with reinforcements. Tyroth snarled and positioned himself between Jennifer and the approaching enemy, while she dealt with the last of the initial patrol. When Jennifer saw the new threat, she quickly finished off the last few ninja and was about to join her brother, but Tyroth stopped her.

"Stay back, sis! I'm gonna clear the way!" he said as fire and mana started to build up in his mouth. A few seconds later, he launched a fireball at the advancing ninja. The first few ninja managed to sidestep the fiery projectile, but they weren't spared it's burning fury when it hit those behind and exploded, flooding part of the hallway with fire.

A dozen or so ninja perished immediately, while most were knocked out, by either the explosion or when they were blasted into the walls, and were left burning to death. Those that were still conscious tried to put out their burning uniforms, only to be cut down when Tyroth and Jennifer hurried past them.

* * *

Meanwhile, Arashi and Arden had joined their soldiers in the fight against the mutants, Arashi with his katana and Arden with his syringe-fingers and a pair of tanto in reserve. The mutants were holding their own against the Foot ninja, but they were heavily outnumbered, and the threat of Arden's serums wasn't helping.

Arashi was currently fighting against both Leonardo and Splinter, while Arden had zeroed in on Monalisa, trying to inject her with his foul serums, but she kept him at bay with her warfans and graceful movements.

"You can't evade me forever, slut! I will bring you down, and this time you won't fool me!" Arden half yelled at Monalisa.

"Don't count on it, you sick quack! Once we're done with you, we'll help Tyroth, if he isn't on his way here right now. Then you will really be screwed!" Monalisa responded and caught Arden's syringes in the gaps of her fan.

"The dragon won't be able to help you, our champion will see to that. And even if he would be victorious, in the end, he will loose!"

"What the shell is that supposed to mean?"

Suddenly, an explosion was heard not so far away, causing everyone to stop fighting.

"What was that?!" Arashi asked.

"Sounds like that champion of yours is toast!" Sephie said triumphantly. But to the mutants' surprise, neither Arashi or Arden seemed upset by that, in fact, they actually smirked evilly.

"Then we are one step closer to bringing down the dragon," said Arden. "now that he has dealt the crippling blow to himself."

"You must have lost it, Tyroth must have won from the sound of it. How would that be crippling to him?" said Monalisa.

"Of course you wouldn't understand, you freaks. You can not even imagine the nature of our champion and her origin." Arden taunted.

"Her? What do you- Oh no! You wouldn't!" said, looking sick as he caught on to what Arden talked about.

"That's right, Donatello. Our champion is none other than the dragon's own sister! And he just killed her!"

The mutants' moral dropped drastically when they heard what Arden said, and Donatello's reaction to the doctor's claim strengthened it. They couldn't believe it, and poor Sephie took it the worst, having known Jennifer for several years before the assassination attempt. She fell to her knees, thinking about what her lover would do if he knew what he had done. How could anyone do such a thing?

The ninja that Sephie had fought earlier tried to take advantage of her lack of focus, but he stopped dead in his tracks when the doors were shattered. Standing in the doorway was Tyroth, and he was not in a good mood.

"Arden! We got some unfinished business!" he said.

Sephie and the other mutants looked at Tyroth with sad eyes, it didn't seem like he knew about his sister. How would they tell him?

"So, you have defeated our champion, and now you are here for your sister, I take it." Arden said with a smirk, knowing that he was holding all the cards. "Well, I'm sorry to say this, but you just missed her."

"Oh, you don't have to worry, I caught with to him." said Jennifer, as she stepped out from behind her brother, keeping her right side towards everyone.

"What?! How is this possible?!" Arden exclaimed, while Arashi gave him an angry glare.

"I'm not your puppet any more! My mind and body area mine again, and you will pay for what you've put us all through!" she said, turning around so that all could clearly see the scales covering the left side of her face. The seven mutants were shocked beyond words when they saw what Arden had done to her, it was bad enough that he had brainwashed her into fighting her own brother, but this was truly monstrous.

Jennifer looked to Tyroth, who gave her a quick nod, then they both charged at the still surprised ninja and attacked them. Tyroth went for the bulk of the enemy's forces, using his fire to force them to scatter, even Arashi and Arden had to disengage the mutants to avoid the flames.

Meanwhile, Jennifer had rushed the ninja next to Sephie and cut him down with ease. Sheathing one of her blades, she extended a hand to help the gecko back on her feet.

"Jennie… your… your face..."

"Yeah, I know. Listen, can we deal with that later, there's enough going on here right now. I'm sure I'll have an emotional meltdown later."

"Yeah… okay… right."

* * *

With Tyroth and Jennifer joining the battle, the odds shifted in the mutants' favour, and while what had happened to Jennifer was disturbing, the moral was rising and the mutants fought fiercely against the ninja with renewed determination.

As the battle waged on, and many ninja fell, Arden set his sight on the dragon, he was the prize after all. Keeping at a distance, he prepared his syringe launcher, loading it with the strong sedatives he had used against Tyroth before. Taking aim, he fired a volley of darts at Tyroth's back, followed by several more volleys. All the darts struck their target, but to Arden's surprise, the only thing they seemed to do was catching the dragon's attention, who turned around and glared at the doctor.

This wasn't the first time the dragon had resisted Arden's serums, but unlike the previous times, he wasn't in a berserker rage, nor was he glowing red. There was only one possibility, the dragon's immune-system had adapted and now it would require a far greater dose, or even stronger sedatives, to bring him down.

Arden quickly tried to change the load-out in his launcher, as Tyroth was heading his way, but the dragon wasn't the only one. Jennifer was already close to the doctor and she just barely missed him with attack, as he saw her in the corner of his eye and avoided it. He continued to dodge her attacks and countered with his own, using both the syringes and a tanto.

Jennifer found that Arden truly was a slippery bastard and surprisingly agile, and since it was he who made her what she was, he knew her inside and out, making him her most dangerous foe. But she was no pushover herself, something Arden learned when he received a large cut on his right cheek. Furious for the wound on what remained of his face, Arden was however forced to withdraw as both Raphael and Monalisa joined Jennifer against him. A group of fresh ninja engaged the mutants so Arden could tend to his wound, he would not have any more scars on his face.

* * *

Meanwhile, when Tyroth was moving towards Arden, Arashi intercepted him and managed to knock Tyroth's sword out of his hands with his own katana, leaving the dragon unarmed but still dangerous. But even if the dragon was very powerful, he wasn't invincible, and would still be of use to the Foot if he was dead, not to mention a lot safer. With that in mind, Arashi quickly aimed a slash at the dragon's neck, hoping to decapitate Tyroth before he could react.

The blade travelled towards Tyroth's neck in the blink of an eye, and Arashi was certain that victory was within his grasp. His sword stopped with a clang and Arashi was shocked when he saw what he had hit. Tyroth had blocked the attack with his hand, which was completely covered in red mana, and the mana around the fingers formed foot long claws, almost blade-like.

Snarling, Tyroth pushed back on Arashi's sword, forcing the leader of the Foot backwards.

"You fiends took me down once before, but never again! You have no idea of how powerful I've become since our last encounter!" Tyroth growled, coating his other hand in mana and forming the same blade-like claws and slashed at Arashi with them. Arashi tried to block the attack with the katana, but the red claws cut through it with ease and left Arashi with five long gashes across his chest.

"Master!" a ninja called out when he heard Arashi cry out in pain. Several ninja rushed to his aid, engaging the dragon while their master retreated. However, the ninja didn't last long, every slash from Tyroth's claws was enough to cut a man to pieces, all the ninja did was annoy him, and that was not a good idea.

After everything that had happened, Tyroth had had enough. They had kidnapped his family, tortured them, brainwashed his sister into a weapon, disfigured her with their vile experiments. With that in his mind, Tyroth's entire body got covered with mana, making it look like he was on fire, and the flames grew stronger and larger, soon only Tyroth's silhouette could be seen within the mana. The mana continued to grow and lifted Tyroth into the air, taking the form of a six metres tall Tyroth, with the real dragon centred in the torso. He roared loudly and anyone who hadn't seen his transformation was made aware of his power, and everyone was terrified of it.

Sephie, Monalisa and the turtles knew what it was, as they had seen it before, back when Tyroth tore the ancient war machine to pieces in Skyrim. It was one of his most destructive abilities, nicknamed the Dragon Aura.

Splinter and Jennifer were awestruck, they had been told of this power but never witnessed it, and this wasn't even as large as they had been told that it could be.

With another roar, the mighty mana dragon swatted aside a few ninja like flies, and the rest dropped their weapons and ran for their lives as the mutant went berserk, crushing anything in his path. Normally, Arashi would have punished such cowardly behaviour, but faced with such power, he agreed with warriors and ordered an evacuation of the building. With Arden's help, they made it to one of the many hidden doors. Looking back at the dragon, they saw him kill several ninja unfortunate enough not to get away, the last one getting crushed by an overhead punch that went through the floor as well, sending cracks in every direction.

"He's going to bring down the entire place on top of us if he doesn't stop! He needs to calm down!" said Donatello.

"And we need to get out of here!" said Michelangelo.

Sephie ran up to her lover, but still kept a safe distance while shouting to him, hoping to reach him.

"Hun, that's enough! We're safe now and the Foot is fleeing! You don't have to continue any more, please calm down!"

At first it didn't seem like he heard her, but he did stop his rampage and looked across the room, seeing no sign of Arashi or Arden. The mana started to dissipate and shrink until Tyroth stood on the floor again, looking awfully tired.

"Are you okay, love?" Sephie asked, worried about her mate. She knew that his outrages took a lot out of him, not to mention the magic he used while enraged.

"...yeah, I think so… sorry about that, I lost control..."

"It's okay, no-one was injured." she said hugging Tyroth closely. "Well, none of us anyway."

"Did anyone see where Arden went?" Jennifer asked.

"Not a clue. Arashi is also gone." said Leonardo.

"They must have escaped during the commotion." said Splinter.

"Then we have to find them! We can't let them get away with what they've done!" said Jennifer.

"It's no idea, they could be anywhere by now, a safehouse, escape tunnels, helicopter or who knows what." said Donatello.

"So we're just gonna give up?"

"No-one's giving up, sis. Believe me, I want to make them pay as much as you do, but we got more important things to deal with right now." said Tyroth. "We'll get them one day, but now we are leaving."

"But-"

"We're leaving, Jennie, and that's final."

"...okay..." Jennifer sighed. She had made a promise, and she would keep it.

"We'll just make a few quick stops and retrieve your stuff, and a gadget of mine, then we'll head for the rendezvous and take the Battleshell back to the lair." said Donatello as they all left the throne-room.

 **The battle has been won, even though Arashi and Arden managed to escape, but they'll think twice about going after Tyroth or his family again after seeing the dragon's new powers. (Obtained in my other story. Mutants Misplaced)**

 **But now comes the time when they have to deal with the aftermath of all these events, and that's not an easy time.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

 **Aftermath**

"… and that about sums it up." said April. After Tyroth and Jennifer had left to help the rest of the gang, she and Casey had explained who they were, what the Foot really was and that their friends were mutants. They did however not mention anything about the mutants' pasts, that was something that they themselves should tell.

"My God. This is almost too much to take in." said Erica. "And there are more like Raymond?"

"Not exactly, I mean, there are more mutants, but he's the only one that's a dragon mutant." said Casey.

"I would still like to know what happened to him. We were told that he was murdered by some nut-job that had gotten his hands on explosives." said Richard.

"And he wasn't the only one, his girlfriend, Elisabeth, was also a victim. Poor girl, she was so sweet and full of life." Erica said with a sad voice.

"I'm sure he'll explain everything once we all get to safety." said April, placing a comforting hand on Erica's shoulder.

Suddenly, Casey's phone buzzed. He checked the display and saw the name 'Raph'.

"Yeah?" he answered. "Okay, see you soon, Raph. They're on their way, should be here any minute."

Sure enough, a few minutes later, there was a knock on the rear doors. Checking to be sure, April then opened the door and the nine mutants got into the Battleshell, almost filling it to capacity. Casey started the truck and began the trip back to the garage.

"Everyone alright?" April asked.

"We are fine, miss O'Neil." said Splinter as he sat down. Richard and Erica looked at the mutants, despite that they had been told about them, it was still hard to fathom it all.

"And you must be Tyroth's parents." said the old rat, looking at the couple and smiling. "You can be proud of your son, he is truly an honourable warrior and a loyal friend."

"Oh, well, thank you, I suppose." said Erica, not quite sure how to react.

"I take it everything went well." said Casey from the front.

"Sure did!" said Michelangelo. "We saved everyone, and the Foot got some serious repairs ahead of them!"

"But it wasn't without costs." said Sephie, looking at Jennifer, who ran her clawed fingers over her scaly cheek, feeling the texture of her reptile features.

"When we get back to the lair, I'd like to run some test on your blood, Jennie. If that's okay with you." said Donatello.

"Tests? I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime, but if you think you can help me, then okay."

"Not much further, guys, then you'll be home." said Casey as he turned in on another street.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Foot's headquarters, in Arden's lab, Arden had just injected both himself and Arashi with healing serum to repair the damage from the battle.

"Your experiment was a complete failure!" Arashi snapped, furious about how everything had gone out of control.

"I assure you, master, had I known that the dragon would find a way to undo the imprinting, I would have taken actions against it. I will admit that I made a mistake with the gas, but I will learn from this and improve the procedures. I will not fail." said Arden, squirming slightly.

"See that you don't, we can't afford failures, not against the dragon. His powers are even stronger than before, now he might even be a threat to the Shredder himself. The dragon must be eliminated."

"I agree, the dragon will still be useful, even if he's dead. But luckily, my lab is still in one piece and we can continue our work without delay, using what we've learned from this battle. I've even got a few ideas for the future." Arden said with a smirk, picking up a book from the desk, the tile read 'Dangerous Reptiles'.

"As long as you don't forget our main goal, doctor, to locate our master's frozen prison, and free him from it."

"I assure you, we will find him. And in the meantime, the freaks will soon learn that I always have one final card to play." he said, looking at a syringe on the lab table, filled with a clear green liquid.

* * *

The mutants and humans had arrived at the lair and Donatello had barely gotten inside the doors before he started preparing the tests for Jennifer's blood. While he did that, Monalisa and April went to the kitchen and prepared drinks for everyone, they needed something to help calm their nerves.

Gathering in the TV-area, Splinter started explaining who they were, by telling Erica and Richard the story of his and the turtles' past and how it intertwined with the Foot. The only one that wasn't there, was Donatello, who after obtaining the blood-sample, stayed and worked on it in his lab.

After Splinter was done, Monalisa continued with a quick version of how she mutated and later joined the turtles, but she left out some of the more horrible details as they were still unpleasant to think about, and she didn't want to upset Tyroth's parents any more than necessary.

Then it was Tyroth's turn, and he told not only how he and Sephie mutated, but also the origin of the well, as well as that of Mutopia. Richard and Erica were pleasantly surprised that Elisabeth had survived, and even more so when they were told that Sephie was Elisabeth, resulting in a heartfelt reunion.

"Wow, just wow." said Richard. "I could never even have imagined something like this. Aliens, robots, magic, dragons, demons, gods, do you have any idea of how crazy all of this sounds?"

"If you think it sounds crazy, think about how it is like to live it. It ain't no walk in the park." said Michelangelo.

"I'll take your word for it. But, what happens to us now?" said Erica.

"Now that the Foot know of you, you will be in danger, but we'll figure something out." said Leonardo.

"Once we get back to Chicago, I'll have a word with Hugh, he might be able to help. Some form of witness protection program or the like. Either way, we will fix this." said Tyroth.

"In the meantime, you could stay with us in Mutopia, we got rooms to spare." said Sephie.

"Or here with us, if that's okay with you." said Leonardo.

"We have a room that you could use otherwise. Just need to clean it a bit first." said April.

While the rest continued their discussion, Monalisa approached Jennifer and asked her to follow. She was led to Monalisa and Raphael's room, and once they were inside, Monalisa closed and locked the door.

"What's going on?" Jennifer asked nervously.

"It's nothing to worry about, I just thought that you'd like to change out of that uniform, they ain't very comfortable. I'll even lend you some clothes, I'm sure that there's something that will fit."

"Thank you, Mona."

While Monalisa started looking through her clothes, Jennifer began undressing and Monalisa couldn't help but sneak a peek at the mixed human and reptilian features. She felt for Jennifer, what she had been through was almost as bad as what had happened to Monalisa herself when she mutated, if not even worse. A piece of Monalisa's mind wondered is she had looked like that as some point during her mutation.

* * *

About half an hour later, Jennifer walked out of the room, dressed in the clothes that Monalisa had borrowed her, a grey sweater and a dark blue skirt that reached past her knees. She had enjoyed trying out some clothes, it was fun and calming, she also got some time to think about her situation and talk about it with Monalisa.

While she had been away, her parents had gone to sleep, exhausted from the past days and in dire need of proper rest, and had been allowed to use the guest-room that Tyroth and Sephie used. The rest of the people, human and mutant alike, had dispersed and were all over the lair.

As much as she wanted to check on her brother, there was one other thing that she needed to do first. Walking over to Donatello's lab, she found the brainy turtle still working on her blood-sample.

"Donnie?"

"Hm? Oh, Jennie. I didn't hear you, was too absorbed in my work."

"It's okay. How is it going by the way, any luck?"

"A bit, yeah. Now, I'm not saying that I'll be able to normal, not yet anyway, but I think I'm on the right track. It will take some time to get a definitive result, but I've got a good feeling about it."

"That's great news! How much time are we talking about?"

"At least a month, most likely more."

"Guess I'll have to do something about my looks then. It's gonna take a lot of make-up to cover my face, and I need to shorten my nail, erh… claws, but then I can wear clothes to hide the rest, like with long-sleeved sweaters and gloves. We have that at work, so they shouldn't suspect anything."

"You seem to handle this surprisingly well."

"I have had some time to think… especially when I was trapped in my own body… and you can't just sit around and feel sorry for yourself, it won't get you anywhere. Tyroth used to tell me that before his 'death', and Mona said the same thing just recently. Besides, the only friends I have in Chicago are those in Mutopia, know some people at work but that's about it, so my social life won't suffer that much, even if I get a new identity."

"Still, if you insist on keeping up appearance, be careful so you don't get caught. You can't really blame the scales on a skin-condition."

"I know, and I'll be very careful, I promise. But, Donnie, do you think that it would be possible to keep at least some of the strength and healing ability I got now, when I'm human again? 'Cause that would be a great help if the Foot try to come after me again."

"I don't know, maybe, but I'm not promising anything. For the time being, I'll focus on restoring you to human form."

"What about the others? Can you do the same for them? I know that you, your brothers and Splinter weren't human before, but what about Mona, Sephie and Tyroth?"

"Well, unlike you, they are much more mutated, so that would be a lot harder, but that's not all. You were engineered to be this way, while Mona was exposed to a mixture of reptile venom and toxic waste. Tyroth and Sephie, on the other hand, were transformed by magic and are technically not mutants in the traditional sense. So even if this works on you, there's no guarantee that it will even affect them the slightest."

"I see. I just hoped that they could get the same chance as me."

"I understand. If I could make Mona human again and reunite her with her family, I would do so if she wanted me to. We would all be sad if she left us, but at the same time, at least I would be happy for her sake, and I'm sure the others would as well. Regardless, I doubt that I'll be able to turn anyone but you back to human form. Maybe someone somewhere someday can do it, but not me, not with this equipment anyway."

"Okay, well, I think I should leave you alone so you can continue. Maybe I should take a nap, I'm quite tired and I have a headache as well. See you around."

"Happy dreams, Jennie."

Leaving the lab, Jennifer made her way to the TV-area, which was empty at the moment, and lay down on the couch. She had barely laid her head on the armrest when she felt very tired, more so than she expected. Maybe it was because she could finally relax that made her feel so tired, but she didn't really care, she just wanted to sleep for a while.

* * *

Jennifer awoke an unknown amount of time later and stretched a bit before sitting up, letting a yawn escape.

"Slept well?" she heard a voice ask. Rubbing her eyes, she saw Tyroth standing beside the couch.

"Not so bad, but it could have been better. I'm feeling stiff and sore all over and this headache doesn't want to go away."

"I'm sorry to hear that. But no nightmares then?"

"No, I've already had a lot of them while I was trapped in the real nightmare. Maybe I just was too tired to actually dream. What time is it by the way?"

"Half past six in the evening, you've slept almost a whole day."

"Really? No wonder that I'm sore then, sleeping for that long on a couch. Where is everyone? Still asleep?"

"Oh, they're up and about, doing some sparring over in the dojo. April and Casey went back to their home shortly after you fell asleep. Mom and Dad are around here as well, I think Mom is in the kitchen, having a cup of coffee, and Dad is over in the dojo, being impressed by the others' fighting skills. I'm going back there soon, so why don't you head over to the kitchen and grab something to eat, you look like you need it."

"I feel like I need it too. And I think I'll stay with Mom for a while, keeping her company."

Tyroth nodded with a smile before helping Jennifer up. The siblings then parted as Tyroth went back to the dojo and Jennifer to the kitchen. When she entered the kitchen, she saw her mother sitting at the table with a cup of coffee, just like Tyroth had guessed.

Erica noticed Jennifer entering the kitchen and looked up from her cup with a smile, but it was clear that it was a pained smile. Seeing the mutant features on her daughter was a painful reminder of the horrors they had been through.

"Hey, Mom."

"Hi, sweetie. How are you feeling?"

"All things considered, it could have been worse. How about you?"

"The same I guess. I don't think it's really sunk in yet, it is an awful lot to take in."

"Yeah, I know, I felt the same way then they told me." said Jennifer as she opened the fridge and looked for something to eat. A few minutes later, she had made herself a bowl of cereal and yoghurt.

"How long have you known about this?" Erica asked.

"Little more than a year or so, I ran into Tyroth shortly after I had moved to New York. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you and Dad, but I promised that I would keep it a secret. Tyroth was afraid that it would reopen old wounds, or that someone would find out about us, like now."

"I'm not blaming you, or your brother, I'm just trying to understand what has happened. By the way, I saw you talk with the turtle with the purple mask for quite a while yesterday. What was his name? Donald?"

"Donatello, or Donnie for short, I had a hard time remembering who was who at first too. But he actually had some good news. He's working on a cure for me, so that I can become human again."

Those news were gold worth for Erica, who felt a jolt of joy and relief when she heard it.

"That's wonderful news!"

"Yeah, but-" Jennifer stopped when she suddenly felt very dizzy and her legs nearly buckled under her. Placing the bowl by the sink, she held on to the edge to keep her balance.

"Are you alright?" Erica asked, worried about her daughter.

"I-I don't feel too good. The headache is getting worse and… and… Mom…"

Jennifer lost her grip and fell to the floor unconscious.

"Jennifer!" Erica cried out and hurried over to her daughter. She tried to wake her, but she didn't respond.

"Jennifer! Wake up! Someone help!"

 **And you thought that it was all over, well, you were wrong. Why has Jennifer fainted, and what will happen? Find out in the next and FINAL chapter of A Sister's Plight.**

 **And, yes, I am evil leaving you all hanging like this.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

 **Farewell Jennifer**

A woman's cry for help reached those in the dojo, stopping their training abruptly. At first they weren't entirely sure that they had heard right, but a second scream confirmed their fears. Worried, they all rushed to the kitchen. Once there, they saw Erica on her knees, holding an unconscious Jennifer close.

"She, she just fainted! I can't wake her!" Erica said alarmed. Donatello quickly knelt beside Jennifer and checked for a pulse, noticing a small trail of blood from her left nostril.

"Her pulse is erratic! We need to get her to the med-room! Tyroth, give me a hand! And someone call April, I need her help!" said Donatello. He then hurried to the med-room to prepare, while Tyroth carried his sister there.

"Hold on, Jen-Jen. Stay with us." he whispered.

* * *

Everyone sat quiet in the TV-area while they waited for any word on Jennifer's condition. It hadn't taken April and Casey ten minutes to make their way to the lair in a hast. That was one hour earlier.

Richard and Erica sat close together, their presence providing some comfort to each other, while Tyroth sat together with Sephie, who comforting stroked his arm.

Finally, Donatello and April came out of the med-room, giving the others some hope, but that faded quickly when they saw the sad faces Donatello and April had.

"How is she?" Richard asked. Donatello swallowed hard and forced himself to face their gaze.

"Not good, I'm afraid. I'm… I'm very sorry to say this, but… she's dying..."

"No! Why?! Why is this happening?!" Tyroth exclaimed.

"We think we know, and it doesn't bode well for her." said April.

"She's only partially mutated," said Donatello. "some parts are still human, some are fully mutated and some are half mutated, but they are all so different from each other..."

"...that they are now rejecting each other. Her body is littering tearing itself apart." April filled in.

"But, you can help her, right?" Erica asked.

"I really wished we could, but we don't even know why this is happening." said April.

"There has to be something we can do. Wait, when she told us what they did to her, she mentioned something about that Arden saying that the more time he had to work on her, the better odds of survival she would have." said Richard.

"That's right. And why he taunted us, he said that he had some adjustments to make to her." said Erica.

"But, that means that she wasn't completed, so why use her in that state?" said April.

"To fool me. They intended for her to look as human as possible, so I wouldn't suspect anything and so I would recognize her." said Tyroth.

"Yes, of course, now it starts to make sense. Arden must have kept her in this half mutated state for that purpose by some kind of procedure or serum, she must have been treated at a daily basis, and now it is loosing its effect, but rather than continuing to mutate, she has started to fall apart." said Donatello.

"Weren't you working on a way to make her human again? Can't you do anything with that?" asked Erica.

"I'm afraid not, I'll need much more time before it will even close to be of use, a month at least, and I doubt that Jennie will survive past the day after tomorrow."

"Then we get Arden! If he's behind this, then he know how to fix it!" said Tyroth with murderous intent.

"That won't be of any use." said Leonardo.

"Why not?" asked Sephie.

"Arden most likely knows what's happening to Jennie, and by now he has probably move or destroyed all data regarding this. We'll never find it in time, even if we were to find him."

"So we're just supposed to watch while our daughter dies?" said Richard.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do. Without the right kind of treatment, we may just make it worse." said April.

"...there is one way, one thing that can save her." said Tyroth with a hint of hesitation in his sad voice. Sephie's eyes widened when she understood what he meant.

"The well!" she said and Tyroth nodded. "But that would-"

"I know, but I'd rather that she survive as a mutant than die as she is now. In the end though, it is her choice to make, if she is capable to do so."

"And if she isn't?" asked Monalisa.

"Then I would call for a vote on what we should do; save her life with the well or let her die. You already know what I vote for, so hands up anyone who agree that we should use the well."

Erica immediately raised her hand, she didn't want to loose another child, so if she could be save, then she supported it. Richard felt the same way and raised his hand at almost the same time as his wife. More hands followed and soon it was clear. The result was unanimous, all were in favour of saving Jennifer's life. Tyroth was a little surprised that no-one was against the idea, but he was also very happy.

"Young Jennifer is a sweet girl that does not deserve this kind of fate. Unless she decline the offer, we shall do everything we can for her." said Splinter.

"Thank you, guys." Tyroth said, touched by their kindness. "Is it possible to talk with her now, Donnie?"

"She's asleep right now, but I can wake her up."

"Good. Could I talk to her alone, break the news and all?"

"Of course, dear." said Erica. "You're her brother and you know what to say."

* * *

Following Donatello into the med-room, Tyroth sat down on a chair next to Jennifer's bed, while Donatello gave her a shot to wake her. Her eyes fluttered and slowly opened.

"B-big brother?" she said weakly.

"I'm here, sis. I'm here." Tyroth said, taking her hand in his own.

"I'll let the two of you be alone. We'll all be right outside if you need anything." said Donatello and left.

"How are you feeling?" Tyroth asked once they were alone.

"It hurts… everywhere…" she replied, looking at her brother's face. "Ray-Ray… look me in the eyes… and tell me the truth… I'm dying, ain't I?"

"… yes…" he said, not able to hold back his tears. Jennifer also started crying.

"It's not fair… our family is finally whole again… and now it will broken again, because of me."

"It's not your fault, if anything it's mine. I should have been more careful, made sure that no-one could find you."

Tyroth lowered his head and squeezed Jennifer's hand, he really didn't want to do this, but he didn't want to loose his sister either. Swallowing hard, he gathered his courage.

"Jen-Jen, there is a way to save your life, but..." he hesitated. "The only way for you to survive, is to drink from the well in Mutopia."

"That would… make me a mutant too, just like you..."

"I know, but it's the only way, however it's your choice. We all want you to live, but if you don't want this, we will respect your wish."

"I'm already a mutant, more or less, what difference would it make? At least I'll be alive."

"Are you saying…?"

"Yes… 'cough'… I'm saying yes, I want to live, even if it is as a mutant… 'cough cough'… ngh, I don't feel so good..."

"Jennie! Jennie, stay with me! Donnie!"

Upon hearing Tyroth, Donatello and April came rushing in. They immediately checked Jennifer, who was sweating and coughing violently.

"She's deteriorating faster. I'm not sure if she'll make it to Mutopia." said Donatello.

"We have to get there quickly, she deserves to live, and she wants to." said Tyroth.

"But it's almost half a days drive there. How will you get there in time?" said April, after giving Jennifer something for the pain.

"There is a way." said Sephie, who stood in the doorway. "But I'll need to use your computer, Donnie."

"No problem. April, can you keep an eye on Jennie while I help Sephie?"

"You don't even have to ask, but please hurry, both of you."

A few minutes later, Donatello had set up his computer for Sephie and returned to the med-room.

"Come on, pick up." Sephie said while the call got connected. Seconds ticked by without anyone answering, but finally, someone answered.

"Y'allo, Rattletrap speaking."

"Ryan, it's Sephie."

"Hiya, gorgeous! How's it going?"

"Not good. Listen, we need help, and it's an emergency."

"An emergency? What's going on?"

"It's Jennie. She's… dying."

"What? No, not the little lady. What happened?"

"It's a long story. We need to get her to the well."

"Say no more, I'll start up the Ninjet an' be over in a jiffy. Just tell me where to go."

* * *

Little more than an hour later, everyone was gathered in a nearby scrapyard, even April and Casey were there. Tyroth carried Jennifer in his arms, having wrapped her in a blanket to keep her warm. She drifted in and out of unconsciousness constantly.

After another few minutes, they heard the soft hum of the Ninjet's silenced engines as the jet decloaked and descended. Landing in an open area, the hatch opened and the mutants and humans boarded the Blackbird-like vehicle.

"Alright, everyone buckle up, 'cause this will be a none-stop express flight." said the rat mutant Ryan from the cockpit when he prepared to take off again.

The trip to Chicago was agonising long, it felt like it would take forever. Jennifer continued to drift between consciousness and unconsciousness, occasionally coughing rather violently and sometimes even coughing up some blood. She didn't have much time left, anyone could see that, but the question that haunted everyone was; would she make it?

After landing the jet in the combined warehouse-hangar, they entered the sewers and walked at a high pace towards the entrance to Mutopia.

Once inside, Erica and Richard had to stop for a moment to admire the village that lay before them, but only for a very brief moment.

A humanoid wolf in a leather vest and jeans met the group as the continued over the plaza.

"Gramps' waiting at the temple, so are the Knights." said Jack the wolf as he accompanied the others, hurrying through the village and out into the cavesystems.

A few minutes later, they saw a tunnel with half a dozen mutants standing outside it. One of them, an elderly turtle with white beard, nodded to Tyroth, as the dragon carried Jennifer into the tunnel. But when Richard and Erica tried to follow their children, the old turtle stopped them by blocking their path with his cane.

"I am sorry, but I can not allow you into the temple." he said.

"Why not? It's our daughter, we should be with her." said Erica.

"After what happened to Sephie during Tyroth's mutation, only Mutopians are allowed in the temple, to avoid accidents. It is for your own sake."

"Please understand." said Sephie. "This is very difficult for Tyroth. He wanted you to live a normal life, if any of you were to be mutated by accident, it would devastate him."

Erica and Richard understood what Sephie meant, they wouldn't mind if they were mutated too if it meant that they could be together with their children, but they hadn't given a thought to how they might feel about it. Looking into the dark tunnel, all they could do now was to wait and pray.

* * *

Tyroth entered the temple and hurried to the well, when he felt Jennifer shift in his arms.

"Ray-Ray?"

"Hang in there, Jen-Jen. We're here now."

"Ray-Ray… I'm scared..."

"I know, I felt the same way."

"It's… so… cold..."

Tyroth knelt by the well and scooped up some water with his hand and brought it to Jennifer's face, but she didn't move.

"Jen-Jen? No… no no no no, stay with me!"

He brought his hand to her mouth and poured the water down her throat, making sure that she swallowed it.

"Come on, don't leave me!"

* * *

Back outside thee tunnel, everyone was waiting impatiently and quietly, there was nothing else they could do at the moment, but it didn't sit right with the Mutopians that it was so quiet in the tunnel as well. They all knew that the mutation was extremely painful and they had all screamed during it, so the fact that they hadn't heard even a faint echo made them fear that the worst had come to pass.

Looking down the tunnel, Sephie was deeply worried for Jennifer, but also for her mate. They had both been very sad when they couldn't see their families again, and Tyroth had been so happy after they had run into Jennifer, loosing her like this would destroy him.

Continuing to look into the darkness, movement caught her eyes.

"Hey, I think someone's coming." she said, her heart beating faster. The others reacted the same way when they turned their attention towards the tunnel.

They all saw the movement in the dark, and after a short while, they could see that it was Tyroth walking towards them. Alone and his eyes wet from tears.

Sorrow started to fill their hearts as it become clear what had happened. They were too late.

As Tyroth came closer, he stopped and looked back into the tunnel. Then, a second figure walked into view, and the spectator's hearts skipped a beat. She was alive.

Soon, the siblings were at the end of the tunnel and were met by a joyful group. Erica couldn't contain herself and pulled her daughter into a big hug, tears of happiness running down her cheeks. Richard was too stunned to move, taking in Jennifer's new appearance.

Her eyes were still dark-brown and she still had her blond hair that reached her shoulder, but that was pretty much the only real similarities she had with her human form. Now she was a mutant lizard, much like Monalisa and Sephie, but still different. Having four fingers and three toes, all with claw-like nails, and a flat tail with spike-like frills along the ridge, her scales were a darker greyish green colour.

"She's a lizard too? If this keeps up, the lizard girls will outnumber us turtle guys." said Michelangelo.

"From the looks of her, I'd say that she is a marine iguana, she has the laterally flat tail, colour and claws of that specie." said Donatello.

"Just keep your hands to yourself, she's still my sister." said Tyroth.

"Oh, my sweet little girl. I was afraid that you were gone."

"I'm sorry that I scared you, Mom. The tail threw me off my balance, so I lagged behind a bit."

"As long as you're alive and well, we're happy." said Richard.

"It is a very terrible series of events that you have been through, and it pains my heart that you had to come here to survive." said George. "But the fact that we were able to give you a second chance, warms within. And, as is tradition, you are allowed to take a new name to go along with your ner life."

"New name? What do you mean?" Richard asked.

"As a symbol of our 'rebirth', we leave our old life behind and start a new with a new identity. But we never forget who we were or where we came from. Tyroth and Sephie did the same, not just to protect you from harm, but to begin anew." George explained.

"Hm, well I've actually thought about this for quite a while, just in case something would happen to me." said Jennifer.

"I see, and what might you have chosen then?"

"I want my new name to be… Amber."

"Then that is what you shall be called from now on, child. Welcome to our family, Amber."

"Thank you, George. There is one thing that I'd like to talk with you all about though."

"What's on your mind?" Sephie asked.

"Well, I'm not sure all of you will agree with this, but… I want to join the Chicago Knights!"

"Hold on! Now, I'm all in favour of having another member, but I'm not sure that this is such a good idea." said Sarah the cheetah.

"Are you really sure about this, Jen- ehm, Amber?" Erica asked.

"I am, just as I was when I helped Tyroth. And I still got all the skills I was given, not to mention the swords, and I want to put them all to good use, just like the rest of you."

"As long as you're careful, I don't see anything that could stop you." said Tyroth. "I know that you can take care of yourself, and that you'll have our backs just as we'll have yours."

"Does that mean...?"

"It does. I'll let you join us as crimefighters."

"I would like to object, but you're a big girl, and if this is what you want to do, I won't stop you." said Richard, hugging his daughter. Erica nodded in agreement.

"Thank you, for everything, Dad, Mom."

"Hell yeah! More girl-power to the team!" the viper called Kate yelled.

"Welcome to the team!" said Percy the grasshopper.

"Now then, if there is nothing else, how about a tour for all of those that have not been here before." said George and led the group back to the village.

With the Foot out of commission for a while, the turtles, Monalisa, Splinter, April and Casey decided to stay a few days and have some fun with their friends, they had all earned it.

Richard and Erica had their lives completely changed, with both their children alive as mutants not being what they had hoped for, if was far better than the alternative. Once Tyroth had gotten in contact with Hugh, his parents were given new identities, while Amber's old one had to be declared dead for all terms and purposes. Still, the family was reunited, and the siblings were happy that their parents would come and visit from time to time.

 **And so ends A Sister's Plight. How many of you thought that Jennifer actually died in this chapter? I sure would have if I didn't know the outcome.**

 **I really hope that you've enjoyed this story, it has been in the works for over a year, and even if it was shorter than Mutants Misplaced, I'm proud over what it became.**

 **Also, I really hope that you liked this, Bloodrayne666, after you writing A Dangerous Captive as a gift to me, I wanted to return the favor. So, here, I dedicate this to you.**

 **With that, I'll see you in my coming stories, should have one up in about a week of writing this, so keep your eyes open. :D**


End file.
